California Divorce 6 Month Clock Starts At Date Of Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I still get lots of calls where people are not aware that in California, the divorce process takes 6 months. And there is further confusion on when the 6 month clock actually starts ticking.

California Divorce 6 Month Clock Starts At Date Of Service

Last week I shot a video explaining that you only have a few weeks left to file and serve your divorce case to finalize in 2017 and I had a lot of questions come in surrounding that, people wanting to get their case started so they can finalize in 2017.

Here was the question. If we file it prior to the end of June, which would give us time to serve, does the proof of service have to be filed with the court prior to the end of the month? While you may get it filed, in the video I was explaining that’s what starts the clock. Let’s say you file it June, what is today? June 20th and let’s say you don’t serve it until June 28th, but then you can’t get to court to file the proof of service until sometime in July.

The question was, if I file the proof of service in July, will the date of jurisdiction or will the divorce still finalize in 2017? The answer is yes. You don’t have to serve it and then file the proof of service in that time frame.

You Can File Proof of Service Later – The Date Of Service Stands

You just have to have it served, whether it be by mail, notice of acknowledgment for personal service or even certified mail. If they’re out of state, you can do certified mail, but as long as they are served one way or another before the end of June, you can file your proof of service in July as long as the date on the proof of service shows it was filed prior to the end of June.

That was a good question. I wanted to record this to explain that. If you are trying to get your divorced finalized by the end of 2017, you need to have it filed and served before the end of this month, but the proof of service doesn’t necessarily need to be filed for it to count.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Go to divorce661.com for more information or just give me a call for a free consultation, 661 281 0266. We do handle divorce cases throughout California. Thanks so much for watching.

Long Term California Marriage & 10 Year Rule For Spousal Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The issues surrounding long term California marriages and the 10 year rule are many. While 10 years is generally considered the rule for what distinguished a long term marriage, there are plenty of other things to consider. For purposes of this article, we are just talking in terms of the general rule.

Long Term California Marriage & 10 Year Rule For Spousal Support

In this video, we’re talking about, how long is a long term marriage in California? Pretty straight forward. I shouldn’t say straightforward. If you’re looking for a numerical value, 10 years is the line in the sand between a short term marriage and a long term marriage.

10 Years Is The “General” Rule

Now, there’s all kinds of rules and the attorneys make it very complex. There’s lots of laws surrounding this, so that can be changed. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it is to the extent that once it is 10 years, it is considered a long term marriage unless there’s some other factors involved, but we’re not going to get into all that complexity, so 10 years.

The reason I bring this up is if you have a long term marriage, related to spousal support, there are some, I guess benefits you could say. If you are married longer than 10 years in regards to spousal support, technically the spousal support order or the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support is indefinite.

Indefinite Jurisdiction Not Lifetime Support

It doesn’t mean you get life support or support for life. That’s commonly misconstrued, but if it’s less than 10 years, the general rule is that half the length of the marriage is what the courts would generally rule for spousal support. That’s kind of the biggest difference and that’s why I wanted to talk about the 10 year rule with alimony.

You can simply Google this to learn more about this. Just simply put California divorce long term marriage. There’s plenty of resources and articles written by attorneys that explain the rules of spousal support in regards to the length of marriage.

I’m Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, handling divorce cases throughout California. Give us a call if you need some assistance. 661 281 0266, or go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks so much for watching.

Six Month California Divorce Process Misunderstandings

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The six month California divorce process has many misunderstandings. There are confusions the process of divorce, such as when you can file certain divorce paperwork to when the 6 months process starts. This article and video discusses the 6 month process of a California divorce.

Six Month California Divorce Process Misunderstandings

In this video, I wanted to dispel some myths regarding the 6 month period it takes to get divorced in California.

You Are Not Automatically Divorce In 6 Months

Number 1, you’re not automatically divorced in 6 months from when you file. A lot of people call and say Tim, I know divorce takes 6 months. 6 months is simply the soonest your divorce can be finalized after the date of service. The reason I bring that up is people file for divorce and say, I’ll be divorced in 6 months.

They don’t finalize their paperwork. They don’t do their judgment. They just file the petition and that’s not the way it works. There’s obviously multiple steps to get your divorce finalized. The 6 months starts at the date of service, so if you filed on March 1st and you didn’t serve your spouse until April 1st, the 6 months would start April 1st. That’s the 1st myth I wanted to dispel.

6 Months Is The Soonest, Not A Deadline To Finish

Number 2 is, aside from 6 months being the soonest, it’s also not a deadline. I’ve had clients call and say Tim, our case is taking a little longer than we thought. Some issues came up and the 6 months is right around the corner and we’re afraid we’re not going to meet the deadline. 6 months is also not a deadline.

You’ve got 5 years to complete your divorce in California. I’ve completed divorce cases as much as 25 years old, but the true law in California is you have 5 years to complete it, otherwise they can dismiss the case and they are starting to do that in some cases.

6 months is the soonest. It’s not a deadline and the clock starts when the divorce paperwork is served. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.

Mediated California Divorce : When & Why To Start Your Divorce Paperwork

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are going to have a mediated California divorce, you may want to also consider starting your divorce paperwork at the same time. Mediators will generally only handle the mediation of your divorce and help you come to an agreement, but they generally don’t handle the paperwork. And people are surprised that after they have spent several months in mediation that they never started the process on the 6 month divorce process with the courts which just causes delays.

Mediated California Divorce : When & Why To Start Your Divorce Paperwork

Today we’re talking divorce mediation and the process of doing that and what we encourage you to do and I’ll give you the rationale behind it.

If you’re going into mediation, mediators will typically mediate your entire divorce case before any action is taken with the courts. Let me give you an example or let me give you some opposing views.

We File Your Divorce Case First To Start The Clock On The 6 Month Process

If you call us, the 1st thing we do is get your case filed, get it served, so we can start the clock on the process. Then it can take as long as it needs to take. 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, a year. You can do your mediation. You can go through that process, but the benefit to filing initially is that you start the clock on the 6 month process.

Why Spend Months Mediating & Never Start The Court Process?

Here’s the alternative. If you go to mediation and let’s say you spend 6 months in mediation, you finally iron out your agreement, you have a memorandum of understanding drafted for you and you say okay, let’s go through the divorce process, you basically it’s as if you’re just getting started. You have to file a case.

File & Serve Divorce Papers And Then Mediate

You have to have the paperwork served and the 6 month clock starts after you come to all of your agreements. Now that’s fine unless you’re hoping to have your divorce case completed faster. If that’s the case, you can go ahead and do your mediation, but at the same time, go ahead and call us so we can get your paperwork started for your divorce, get it served, start the clock and then take as long as you want.

That way when your memorandum of understanding is completed and you guys are all in agreement and done, you can literally finalize right there on the spot. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Thanks for watching. Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

Income & Expense FL-150 Must Be Filed When Minor Children

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In this article we talk about required forms for your California divorce when you have minor children involved. In some cases you don’t need to file your income and expense declaration with the court, and in some divorce cases such as when minor children are involved, you will have to file your FL-150 income and expense declaration FL-150 with the court.

Income & Expense FL-150 Must Be Filed When Minor Children

This is kind of a follow up to a video I just recorded about not needing an income and expense declaration. In this video, I want to talk about when you do need your income and expense declaration and why.

FL-150 Required When Minor Children Involved In You Divorce

If you have minor children and you’re divorced, you’re going to need to prepare the income and expense declaration and it will need to be filed along with your judgment paperwork or at least within 60 days prior to your judgment being submitted to court so it’s at least 60 days fresh.

The income and expense declaration does need to be filed when you have minor children. The reason I’m bringing this up is because I have clients that hire us and say “Tim, we either have an agreed upon amount of child support already or they’ll say Tim, we don’t want there to be child support.”

FL-150 Required Even If No Child Support Requested

That’s fine. Either case is fine. The question becomes, if we have an agreement for child support and, or we don’t want child support at all, why do we have to prepare the income and expense declaration and file it with the court?

That’s a great question. The simple answer is, it’s just a mandatory form that’s required when there are minor children. You have to turn in the income and expenses. Both parties do when there are minor children.

Now, in reality, the rationale behind it is they want to look at the income of the parties to see what you guys are making and base it upon your custody schedule, the time share percentages to see if the amount of child support being paid meets the state minimum guideline amount.

You may be saying, well Tim, if there’s no child support requested and, or we have an agreement to a certain amount and that does not match the calculation, which is called a dissomaster, what happens?

Essentially, what we will prepare your divorce case whether you have a fixed amount of child support that you guys have agreed on, no child support or you just want to go on state guidelines, we will turn in a calculation that reflects exactly what you’re requesting.

Just keep in mind, the purpose of this video was if you have minor children, you need to turn in an income and expense declaration. It’s for the courts to review and make sure the standard of child support is being met for the minor children and that they’re being taken care of.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. I hope this video was helpful. Give us a call with any questions, 661 281 0266 or you can go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks for watching.

File Trial Setting Request With Response When No Agreement In California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In the article we explain why it is important to file your Request for Trial Setting along with your Response to your California divorce when you know you will not be in agreement and will need the court’s help by going to trial. The court just doesn’t get involved until you ask them to.

File Trial Setting Request With Response When No Agreement In California Divorce

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video, we’re talking about how to get your divorce done quickly if you are not in agreement with your spouse.

Of course, if you have filed for divorce or if you have been served divorce papers and you’re not in agreement with your spouse, the next thing you’re going to do is file a response. That’s step 2. You’re going to file a response once you’re served.

If You Know You Are Not Going To Be In Agreement

Now if you know you’re not going to be in agreement with your spouse and there’s absolutely no way through maybe a service like ours or mediation or otherwise and you know the only way that this is going to be resolved is through a trial, the 1st thing you want to do or the very 1st thing you should do after you filed a response is file a request for trial setting.

You Have To Ask The Court To Get Involved

What people don’t know is, and they’ll preface this by saying we’re going to get divorced and we’re going to let the court decide. 1st of all, the court doesn’t decide anything unless you ask them to. The only people that go to court are people that are not in agreement and the courts don’t automatically set hearings.

How To Get The Court Involved

The only way you’re going to get a judge to make a decision is to get in the system and get through the process of having hearings and the 1st hearing in most cases is called a request for trial setting where the court basically has the parties come in to find out what the issues are and then makes some orders for paperwork to be done and you’ll be on your way to trial at some point.

That’s the 1st thing you want to do. I see people that file, the other party responds and several months go by and they haven’t taken any action and they’re wondering why their case isn’t finalized, why the court hasn’t called them. They’re not.

You have to ask the court to get involved and that’s why filing a request for trial setting. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.

Waiving Child Support Vs. Zero Child Support Order : California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and today we’re talking about the difference of no child support versus waiving child support.

So, a lot of times we have clients who have kids and they want to waive child support or they’ll say Tim, we’re getting a divorce and we’ve agreed to waive child support. So, in California, you cannot waive child support.

It is mandatory in the state of California, however there is a way to get your divorce done and not have child support. So, what am I talking about? Again, there’s a difference between waiving child support and having a zero child support order. While child support may be mandatory, it’s possible to get a zero support order.

You still have to have a child support order as part of your judgment, but we can set it at zero based upon your agreement. If you have any questions about this, give me a call because it’s very specific. You can’t turn in a divorce judgment and say we’re waiving child support. There’s a specific way you have to package up your judgment to set child support at zero.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day. Give me a call if you have any questions. We handle divorce cases throughout California. You can go to divorce661.com or just give me a call at 661 281 0266. Have a great day.

Moving & Getting Divorced In California? What Address Should You Use?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video, we’re talking about when you’re getting ready to move and you’re getting ready to file for divorce at the same time.

So, when you go to file for divorce, let’s say you live in Valencia, California and you’re going to be moving to say, Van Nays and you’re going to be filing for divorce pretty soon. What I recommend is you should use your new address that you’re going to for your filing of your divorce paperwork if you know you’re going to be going somewhere say, in the next 30 days.

The court’s not going to mail anything to you right away. The 1st time you might get anything in the mail from the court would be probably 60 to 90 days. So, if you’re 30 days out from moving and you have an address, go ahead and use that new address for purposes of your filing of divorce so that way you make sure you get your filing of divorce paperwork in the mail.

Worst case scenario, if you don’t do that, you’ll have to do a change of address with the court and serve the other party, but if you know you’re going to move, like I just had a client call. They were moving from Palmdale to Valencia in the next couple weeks.

I said, let’s just use your Valencia address. It’d be no sense in filing the case with a Palmdale address and then 2 weeks later changing the address with the court. It’s just unnecessary paperwork. Use the address you’re moving to if within the next 30 days.

It’ll spare you from having to change your address with the court in the future. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Give us a call if you have any questions. We handle divorce cases throughout California. Talk to you soon.

When To File California Divorce Request For Trial Setting FAM-014

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

There are only 2 ways your California divorce will finalize. You either come to an agreement with your spouse and submit a stipulated (Agreed upon) divorce or you go to trial.

To come to an agreement without trial can be as simple as doing your own divorce, using a third party divorce document preparation service like ours or mediation to obtain assistance with coming to an agreement.

However if you are unable to come to an agreement, then your only option is to go to trial. But, to go to trial takes several steps and the first step is to file the Request For Trial Setting.

But the questions is, “when should you file the Request For Trial Setting”?

In my opinion the second you know you are not going to be able to ever come to an agreement you should file the request for trial setting FAM-014.

Let me give you an example.

I have a client who was served divorce papers. He came to us for assistance with filing his Response. Now, whether we are mediating the case and assisting both parties or not, the first thing I ask people is if there is a chance that they will come to an agreement.

If the answer is “Yes” then we work to assist both parties in working towards an agreement. If the answer is “no” then we will usually recommend that the request for trial setting be filed at the same time as the Response.

Here is the rationale. When you file for divorce, the next step is for the Respondent to file a Response within the 30 days. (this is not always necessary if in agreement – call me for questions on how we save you money on court fees). Once you file the Response, guess what the court does? Nothing! So all you have is a Petition filed for divorce and a Response filed.

People think at this point that the court is going to get involved and start helping them by setting hearings on their own. While some courts in California do have some hearings they will set, most do not.

So what happens is, is your case just sits with the court with no court involvement until you ask them to. This is what the request for trial setting does. It is basically you telling the court that you cannot come to an agreement and you need to get into the court system to start moving your way towards trial.

There are several steps prior to you actually going to trial, and it is very likely you will come to an agreement in some other way, other than trial, but to file the request for trial setting is the first step to get you there.

Santa Clarita Superior Court : Santa Clarita Divorce Court

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, I know you are looking for the Santa Clarita divorce court because you live in Santa Clarita and want to file for divorce.

Here’s the thing. The Santa Clarita Superior Court does not handle family law or divorce!

What? Really? Yep, seriously. As large as our town has become, we have never had a family law court that could handle divorce.

Up until about 2 years ago, if you lived in Santa Clarita and wanted to file for divorce, you had to go down to San Fernando Superior Court. Now, we have to go to Chatsworth Superior Court to file our divorce cases.

Not only do we not have family law, but they also took away Civil and Traffic. All these issues are now handled in Chatsworth. The only thing we have left here in Santa Clarita Superior Court is criminal court.

When I worked for the courts (at the time in Downtown Central division and San Fernando) the court supervisors would tell us that Santa Clarita is what keeps them busy as far as divorce case filings are concerned. And I can vouch for that. I was the one working for the family law judges, approving (or should I say rejecting) the final divorce judgments for the court.

I saw divorce case after divorce case coming out of Santa Clarita. It is crazy how many divorce cases come out of Santa Clarita. Just my little company alone, we file about 20 divorce cases per month for people living right here in Santa Clarita.

I guess we should just be glad that we don’t have to go all the way down to Downtown Los Angeles to file our divorce cases. The branch courts, such as Chatsworth, are there simply for convenience so I guess we should be thankful.

If you want to file for divorce, we can help. Give us a call and we can provide a free phone consultation and assist you with your Santa Clarita divorce.