Still Live Together And Want Divorce? What Date Of Separation Do You Use?

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Still Live Together And Want Divorce? What Date Of Separation Do You Use?

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com today we’re answering the question what date do you use for the date of separation when filing for divorce.

So here is the scenario, I will start a divorce case for someone and we have a worksheet for that or you can even start online at divorce661.com and there’s a questionnaire and one of the questions is date of marriage of course and the other is date of separation and probably at least half of the time the comment I get is Tim, we’re not legally separated, we’re still living together and that’s totally fine, that’s not what we’re asking for. So, for date of separation, here are some options that you can use.

Number 1, there may be a date in the past that stands out in your mind that you would consider to be the date of separation, maybe something happened on that particular date or something as much as you guys sat down and talked about it on that date, perhaps you started sleeping on the couch or in a different room on a specific date, those are all valid dates of separation, maybe a day you moved out of the family residence or the home you guys live in together, that would be another valid date.

If there is no other date in mind and say you guys are very amicable and you just talked about it, and you’ve just called me and we’re getting the ball rolling then using the date of filing is a date of separation.

You have to have a date of separation when you file your petition, you cannot leave it blank, it will be a rejected, they won’t reject it but it will be cause for your divorce case to be rejected when you turn in your judgment, so make sure you have both a date of marriage and a date of separation and if there’s no previous date in the past that makes sense then you just use the date of filing as your date of separation.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com hope you’re having a good day, if you need any help please give me a call 661 281 0266 and take care.

How To Start Your California Divorce : The Divorce Forms To Start

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How To Start Your California Divorce : The Divorce Forms To Start

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com today we’re answering the question how do I go about filing for divorce in California, so you can answer this question with a couple options.

A couple of different ways so let me start with the 1st you can do it yourself, hire a service like ours, a legal document assistant firm, we do specialize in California divorce so we can serve all of the courts in California or you can hire a mediator or an attorney, so you have options as far as that’s concerned.

Let me answer this like how do you file for divorce, like physically what forms. To start a divorce in California you need 3 forms, it’s really going to depend upon the county but at the minimum you’re going to need the summons and a petition, if there’s children there’s going to be a form called a UCCJEA, it’s form FL dash 105 and then most counties will have a local form.

It’s some type of jurisdiction form for instance in Ventura county it’s notice of case of assignment, same with LA county and all of the various counties have some local form, usually to say they want to know where the parities live, same with Orange county, San Diego county, they all have a local form that you’ll file.

So, summons petition and a local form for jurisdiction purposes, they want to know where you guys live to make sure you’re filing in the right court and if there is children always a UCCJEA. So that is the 4 forms, or 3 forms you need to file for divorce to get the process started, keep in mind you are just filing the initial paperwork, you have not filed for divorce, you have not finalized your divorce, a lot of calls we get people say well I filed for divorced thinking filed means finished, filed simply means you filed the petition and got the ball rolling.

Tim Blankenship divorce661.com hope this was helpful, give us a call for more information at 661 281 0266 or go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks for watching.

Signing & Notarizing Your California Divorce Paperwork

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Signing & Notarizing Your California Divorce Paperwork

The divorce courts throughout California generally have different rules in regards to signing paperwork. These different rules can be so varied that sometimes we have to make recommendations in a blanket statement to make sure folks have the best chance of having the divorce case approved.

This transcription and video discusses what we recommend as far as signing your divorce judgment.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and this is just a quick video. I want to talk to you about whether or not you need to notarize your divorce judgment paper work when you turn it in, so just as a blanket statement what I’m going to tell you is yes.

What I’ve done as a practice probably in the last year is just advised all of my clients regardless of the circumstances rather, is just across the board both the parties, petitioner and respondent, should always have their final signature page notarized.

When we prepare a judgment, we will prepare a page that just has a signature line for the petitioner, the respondent and the judge, we also have a notary acknowledge at the bottom so you can take it and have it notarized simply.

The reason we’re recommending that you across the board regardless of the circumstance is that both parties get it notarized, is we’re starting to see a trend and this started about a year, a year and a half ago where a clerk here and there around you know throughout California is requesting it, even though it wasn’t normally the case.

So, let me give you some scenarios, if you had an uncontested divorce where the petitioner filed the petition, the respondent filed the response and that’s what you consider an uncontested case then you didn’t need to have your signature notarized and that’s because they know that both parties are involved.

The reason the notary is there is of course to make sure that it’s actually the signature of the parties and when the no response is filed, in the case of a default or a hybrid where we have a default with agreement, that again is a time when you would need to have your signature notarized, the respondent.

Then what started happening is on long term marriages where we are terminating spouse support, so I don’t want to get too much into the weeds on this but in a long term marriage the general rule is California law states that there is reserved jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support indefinitely however, many clients want to terminate that jurisdiction so there is waiver language to do so.

Then what happened because spouses were giving up their rights to spouse support on long term marriages and wanted to waive it, the courts wanted to verify and by doing so asking that even on uncontested cases that the parties have their signatures notarized.

So, it’s just easier across the board everyone get your signature notarized, both petitioner and respondent on every case whether it be default, hybrid or an uncontested. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com hope this video was helpful, call me if you need any help with your divorce anywhere in California.

You can schedule a consultation with me right off of our website, you can go to divorce661.com look for the blue button that says schedule a call with Tim and you’ll have access to my calendar and we’ll get you setup, talk to you on the phone and see if we can help you out 661 281 0266 and also at divorce661.com.

Thanks so much for watching, take care.

Which California Divorce Forms Require Original Signatures

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Which California Divorce Forms Require Original Signatures

Some forms you file with the court you can use a scanned signature and others require original signatures. For the most part you will need original signatures on the judgment and all final documents, however many of the California divorce forms can be scan or fax signatures including the initial Petition for divorce.

Below is a video that discusses these tips and accompanying transcription of the video.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, I want to talk about which California divorce forms can be like photocopied or scanned signatures and which copies, which divorce forms have to be original signatures.

So, the easiest way to remember this is for the most part the initial filing paperwork, so your summons, petition, your jurisdictional form, your UCCJEA, those do not have to be original signatures.

So, for our clients for instance this makes it easy for us to start the filing right away without even coming into our office in fact, most of our clients never step foot in our office the entire process, a lot of what we are able to do is via phone and email.

In fact, the whole thing is able to be done via phone and email but when we start your divorce case you can actually fax or scan your signatures to us for the initial filing.

Now on the financial disclosure, those can also be filed with a fax or scanned signature, if you’re going to do this for one reason or another you want to make sure that you keep a page, you have a blank signature page before the fax signature and then you write on that page that it’s a fax signature, you just have to have an extra signature page in front of the one with the signature that’s going to be a fax signature.

So, the initial filing paperwork, someone’s petition, your disclosures can be faxed signature but the judgment, your final paperwork, settlement agreement, all the procedural documentation, all of that has to be original signatures.

So, for us we get the case filed immediately because we can receive the summons and petition with faxed signatures, so we can get your case filed and then after that generally we will complete the remainder of your case in its entirety and send you via email for your review and once it’s approved you guys would sign it and I would need original signatures on everything at that point and mailed into our office so I could prepare it for court.

So faxed signatures on initial paperwork is fine but original signatures on everything else moving forward to finalize your divorce case.

Tim Blankenship divorce661.com, hope you’re having a great day and take care.

Will Judge Approve Our California Divorce Agreement With Unequal Property Division

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Will Judge Approve Our California Divorce Agreement With Unequal Property Division

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and today we’re talking about court agreements so, let me give this to you 2 ways.

I get 2 questions, 1 is Tim what will the courts say about our agreement, meaning once we turn in our agreement what will the courts say when they review it, will they approve it, you know are they going to look at it, etcetera and the other is what will the courts say, is another way people say that.

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So 2 things, they’ll say Tim what would the courts say we need to do in this particular situation or in the alternative they’ll say this is what we want to do but what will the courts say about our agreement, so it kind of sounds like the same thing but I want to address this issue.

When you handle your case amicably, say through our service, number one if you’re in agreement you’re not going to go to court, we’re going to handle all of that for you, but the court is not going to look at your agreement.

They’re going to look and make sure it’s procedurally correct, that it was served correctly, the documents were prepared properly, all of the discovery and disclosures were done properly, you know filed and served and all of that, but at the end of the day it’s just a rubber stamp of your agreement.

So, let’s talk about 2 things, so 1st your assets and debt division. The courts do not care if you guys have an equal division of assets and debts, if you guys are in agreement. While community property laws in California state that everything is to be divided 50/50, many of our clients do a couple of things, they come up with an agreement that is fair to them and it may not be even, you know if you’re looking at asset and debt charges it’s not going to be completely even

Some people just say Tim I’m going to keep what I have, he or she is going to keep what she has and we’re just going to call it a day and you get to have that ability to make those types of decisions when your case is amicably.

So, when you’re going through a divorce in California and you’re in agreement the sky is the limit as far as the agreement that you guys want to come too. It’s going to be completely up to you guys and in fact when we submit your property division to the courts, we don’t even give the court the values, all we give them is the name of the account, asset or debt that you’re keeping and the last 4 digits of the account.

So even if the court was to have to make a decision on that, we’re not even providing them the values to be able to see if it’s fair or not, so that just further shows you that it’s not about fairness in the courts eye, it’s about fairness in you and your spouse’s eye.

Tim Blankenship divorce661.com, thanks for listening and please call us if you need assistance if with your divorce anywhere in California, talk to you soon.

FL-343 : Attaching The Spousal Support Order To The FL-180

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FL-343 : Attaching The Spousal Support Order To The FL-180

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com today and we’re talking about the judgment, so we’re talking about when you turn in your final judgment papers, we’re talking about the face sheet FL 180 and then all of the following documentation.

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Now in other videos and podcasts, I’ve discussed the fact that you should not use the martial settlement agreements that you find online or even through legal zoom or other online services because they are invalid with the courts.

They cause problems every time and I just picked up a new client every time who went through one of those services and we had to fix literally everything with their divorce paperwork. But with this particular podcast I want to talk about the forms you need to attach, specifically regarding spouse support.

Whether or not you’re going to have spouse support as part of your judgment, meaning there is going to be spouse support for a specific amount of time and money or there’s not going to be any spouse support, you still need to include Form FL 343 the spouse support order attachment, and again, yes there is going to be spouse support, no there is not going to be spouse support, either way you need to attach the FL 343 because it addresses both issues.

One of the issues it came up with, this person that had the online service and they came to us to fix everything, is they used a written narrative marital settlement agreement which in most cases are not going to have the required legalese. Specifically, in this case they were married longer than 10 years and the marital settlement agreement they had offline did not have the necessary legalize in it and it would have been rejected on that reason alone.

That’s why when we get these types of causes we simply take from the marital settlement agreement the information and the agreements they have and we transfer that onto the actual court forms. In this case the spouse support order FL 343, the property order FL 345 and that’s how we prepare that even with the property, if there is no property, you still need to include a property order.

So here is a for instance, if there is no assets and debts and there is going to be no spouse support, you’re going to have an FL 180, an FL 343 and an FL 345. The FL 343 is going to say no spouse support, the FL 345 is going to say there is no property subject to division by the court and that’s how you can get your divorce judgment.

There is also obviously multiple additional procedural documents that go along with that but that would be the basis of your divorce decree, using the forms properly.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com if you have any questions we do help people with their divorce throughout California, 661 281 0266 or you can go to divorce661.com for more information.

Request For Trial Setting (FAM-014) : What Happens At A TSC

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Request For Trial Setting (FAM-014) : What Happens At A TSC

Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com today we’re answering the question what happens at a trial setting conference.

So, while 90 percent of the cases we handle are completely amicable and our clients do not go to court when we enter into a full agreement, sometimes I’d say 5, 10 percent of the time maybe the cases go a little sideways, not everything is in agreement as they thought and so they’re going to need to at least start getting into the court system.

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The 1st thing you would file to get into the court system is what’s called a trial setting request, a request for trial setting exactly and what happens with that 1st hearing, once you file that form you’ll get a hearing in about 1 to 2 months, usually 2 months or so, and at this trial setting all the court is doing is ascertaining what exactly are the issues and why you guys are unable to come to an agreement.

On the request for trial setting it basically says we have the following issues, the divorce itself, child custody, child visitation, child support, so you basically will mark off what the issues are.

So at the trial setting there isn’t anything you have to prepare for, there’s not going to be anything in the exhibits or they’re not going to be talking about any orders, or anything like that, the court is simply going to say okay what’s going on, you guys filed on this date, you responded on that date and these are these issues, briefly tell me what the issues are and then the judge will impose some orders of certain things they want you procedurally they want you to do.

Meaning they’ll probably say well if you haven’t prepared your preliminary declaration disclosure both of you need to do that by this time and then take these actions by this time and come back for the next trial setting conference or they may even elevate it to like a mandatory settlement conference or something like that.

So it’s basically the trail setting conference is simply the 1st step in the court ascertaining what the issues are so they can put you on a path to resolving it through a series of hearings, case management conferences, which would be the next step up to a mandatory settlement conference and then ultimately to trial.

So those are kind of the steps leading up and with each one you get closer and closer to being able to come to an agreement and letting the other party know what the issues are and letting the court know what the issues are and then, ultimately if you’re unable to resolve them through those series of hearings, it will result in trial as a last resort.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com give us a call if you need any help with your divorce anywhere in California 661 281 0266 or you can go to divorce661.com for more information.

Date Of Separation In California Divorce : What You Should Know

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Date Of Separation In California Divorce : What You Should Know

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com, been talking a lot about dates of separation in the last podcast.

I just talked about different ideas that you can use for the date of separation, most of the time our clients are in agreement to the date of separation but in this podcast, I want to talk about what is the significance of the date of the separation and I’m reading off an attorney’s website because I don’t like to give legal advice but I do want to share this information with you.

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So, let me share this, it says California uses a date of separation as the essential date for determining property interests, property acquired by a spouse after the date of separation is considered to be that spouses separate property, while property acquired before the date of separation is community property.

So, in plain English what that means is before the marriage anything you acquired is separate, during the marriage everything you acquired is community property, subject to division by the courts. So, the issues become people say Tim we don’t have anything in each other’s names, so we don’t have any property to divide.

In the state of California, they don’t look at whose name it’s in, they look at the date of acquisition of the asset or debt. So, like my wife and I, she can have her own bank accounts and pensions, and I can have mine totally separate, never shared, never anything even I can buy the car in my name and she does not appear anywhere on the car, at all on the title or the loan but it’s still community property, she still has an interest in that property.

Another example is with this business of mine, while she is not part of it, doesn’t work in it most of the time or at all, she has her own thing, she has a community property and it’s an interest in my business because it was started during the marriage and it made money during the marriage, so that’s how that works.

Now the significance of the date of separation is that once you file and you indicate a date of separation, that’s the line in the sand for the community property interest, so a lot of times there can be, and not with us most of our clients do agree on a date of separation but where parties disagree usually is around, you know when they’re getting close to the 10 year mark and they know they may have to pay spouse support for a longer period of time, or in the accrual of say community properties, such as pensions or so forth.

I’ll give you an example, if 1 party said well the date of separation was 2 years ago and the spouse is saying no the date of separation is last month, there’s what almost 2 years of additional acquisition or 2 more years of accrual of community property in the other parties with the pensions, meaning they would get more money if the date of separation was pushed closer to the future, or not the future but to today, to current times.

So if that happens there are tests that can be looked at in determining and again, we don’t deal with that too much in our office, it’s usually agreed upon but it can be full trials in court and divorce can be held over the issue of the date of separation because like I was saying it can be a big difference in the amount of community property one is awarded, it can also be a huge difference in as far as the length of marriage going over 10 years, where someone is trying to get support for an indefinite period of time as opposed to half the length of the marriage.

So, I’m not going to get into the exact details of the objective tests versus the subject tests because we don’t deal with that too much, but that’s something you can look at.

You can always give me a call if you have questions about determining the date of separation or read the article and listen to the podcast that I wrote on trying to figure out what an applicable date of separation would be.

In most cases, 90 percent of the time, it’s going to be obvious both of you will agree. It’s only in cases where one party is trying to establish a shorter period of time for purposes of financial gain.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, hope that was helpful. Give us a call we do handle divorce cases throughout California, go to divorce661.com or give me a call at 661 281 0266 and we’ll talk to you soon.

California Child Support Modification : Stipulation To Modify Child Support

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California Child Support Modification : Stipulation To Modify Child Support

This article and video discusses child support modification in California. The topics covered are:

  1. What a stipulation of child support is
  2. What a modification of child support is
  3. Easiest way to modify child support
  4. Modifying Income Withholding Order
  5. Costs of Modifying child support via agreement
  6. How long the process of modifying child support takes

Below is the video and transcript.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, we’re talking about modifying child support and the easiest way of going about that.

I had a call yesterday, someone wanted me to run some numbers and by the way what we do is we take a look at the income of the parties, of the timeshare between the children and then punch in the income of the parties to determine what child support would look like and this is based on the court’s DissoMaster software, which we utilize.

So I got call and he said Tim I want to look at modifying the child support, we simply plugged in the information into the DissoMaster calculation and got the new number and it’s easy when the parties agree to modify child support and we talk to all of our clients about this, once we do have a current order, say the divorce is final, if they ever want to change the amount or see if the amount has changed.

I just need to know the income so I can run the report and see if it needs to be modified and the easiest way to modify it is through a stipulation.

A stipulation just means agreement and all I do is draft a 3 to 4 page written document that basically modifies the current order for support and indicates how much it will be, on what date it will be changed and for what children it’s in regards too.

It’s pretty straightforward, it takes me just a hour or so to prepare the document, there’s no court involved, there is just a 20 dollar court filing fee, to file it with the court and it usually takes a couple of weeks to get that filed and if you have an attached income withholding order to your child support.

We would also need to prepare either a termination order or an amended income withholding order so we can get both the stipulation signed by the judge as well as the income withholding order, changing the amount so we can get that to your employer if money is being taken out directly of your check, we can do that all simultaneously.

So, Tim Blankenship divorce661.com give me a call if you have any questions, need help with your divorce in California. Thanks so much for watching.

How To Get A Nullity Of Marriage In California

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How To Get A Nullity Of Marriage In California

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com, today we’re talking about the rules for a nullity for marriage in California, so we’re talking about annulments.

Every once in a while, you know we do thousands of divorce cases a year and every once in a while, we’ll get a call for someone asking, saying they want to get a nullity and in most cases they’re asking for a nullity because they have been married for a short period of time, maybe a couple of weeks, a couple of months or something like and that and realized it was a mistake.

Now if you watch the TV, and you watch programs on TV, one I can think of particularly, oh gosh I’m trying to remember the name of it but basically they were in Vegas, they got married and the next day they said oh we want to get a nullity, do you do a nullities, oh the movie was the Hangover and maybe in Vegas this is true, where you can just go and have your divorced nullified because it was a mistake and short term marriage but in California that’s not the case.

Time does not matter or I should say shortness of time, or the shortness of the marriage is not considered an issue or reason for a nullity. So, the reason I’m bringing this up is on top of getting a few calls a year for a nullity, I got a call this week and the gal said look we got married 4 days ago and we want to have our marriage nullified, we decided that it was a mistake and the wrong thing to do and again, I had to explain her that the time lapse is not a reason for a nullity in the state of California.

Here are the reasons, there are 6 specific reasons you can ask the marriage to be voided and they usually aren’t going to be applicable.

Number 1 is petitioner’s age at time of registration of domestic partnership or marriage, so this means the party filing for the annulment was then say under 18 at the time of the marriage or domestic partnership, so basically unable to enter into a legal contract essentially.

Prior existing marriage, okay this is the only one we’ve actually ever had nullities approved on and what this is, is if you get married newly and you never finalize your divorce on your 1st marriage, you can have this new marriage voided and nullified because there is a preexisting marriage, that’s the one that we’ve used the most, or I should say the only one we’ve used.

The next one, unsound mind, so it’s either party was of unsound mind or unable to understand the nature of the marriage or domestic partnership including the obligations that come with it, so this is going to be possibly the Vegas, you go to Vegas, got drunk and woke up and married the next day, you could say you’re of unsound mind but that’s going to be difficult to prove and, by the way all of these reasons have to be approved by a court, none of these are like divorce, where it’s uncontested or irreconcilable differences, you have to actually go to a hearing and prove to the court that this is valid and the judge has to make the order on it, and many times what the court will do is they will dismiss the nullity and they’ll just make it a divorce.

Okay number 4 fraud, it says either party got married or registered the domestic partnership as a result of fraud, the fraud must have been about something vital to the relationship it directly affected, why the party who was deceived agreed to the marriage or domestic partnership and some of the examples it says are marrying only to get a green card and the ability to have children.

Number 5, force, either party consented to getting married or filing into this partnership as a result of force okay.

And the 6th one is physical incapacity and what they’re referring to it says, the parties got married or registered a domestic partnership while one of them was physically incapacitated and in parenthesis is say basically it means that one of the spouses or partners was physically incapable of consummating the relationship, so this goes back to the old world of if you can’t get your spouse pregnant that the marriage is invalid, it’s very old school but still very on the books apparently.

So that’s the 6 reasons and again time is not a factor when asking for a nullity in California, you simply would have to get divorced. So for the gal that called me the other day I had to break the news that despite being married only 4 days and being very young, that they’re going to have to get divorced as opposed to nullifying the marriage, just have to chalk it up to a life lesson unfortunately.

Tim Blankenship divorce661.com specializing in California divorce, we can help you anywhere in California, feel free to give us a call 661 281 0266 and we’ll talk to you soon.