Physical Custody vs. Legal Custody | Santa Clarita Divorce

When it comes time to discuss the custody of the children, there are two term you will want to familiarize yourself with.

Physical Custody and Legal Custody.

Legal Custody deals with the rights to make decisions about their welfare.  This includes such things as choice of religion, where they attend school, what doctor to go to and so on.

Because the courts are interested in whats best for the children of the marriage and therefore prefer that after a divorce that both parents continue to participate to make these decisions as they did when they were married.  So they prefer to keep thing where both parents share joint legal custody.

Of course, this is in cases where it is appropriate.  There are some circumstances where  a judge may be inclined to give one of the parents sole legal custody.

Physical custody refers to where the children will live on a normal basis.  Again, the Courts seem to generally prefer that parents have joint physical custody so they have equal access to both parents.

Don’t confuse joint physical custody with 50/50 custody.   One parent can be given a greater percentage of custody in a joint custody situation with the other spouse having a visitation schedule or something such as reasonable visitation.

When you file your initial divorce paperwork, you can indicate your request for physical custody and legal custody.  The same goes for the response.  When the Respondent files their paperwork they too can indicate what they want as far as physical custody and legal custody is concerned.

Physical and legal custody of the children can sometimes be an issue because it can be tied to the amount of child support a spouse may receive if one parent has more time with the children, the other parent might be required to pay more in support depending on the circumstances.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We provide affordable flat rates for your service.  Please give us a call for more information.

 

How Does A Santa Clarita Divorce Retainer Work

Okay, I am writing this article mostly because of the clients who have called me after spending thousands of dollars on their divorce with an attorney and are not even close to being divorced.  This is not a jab at attorney, but rather at the folks who did not take the time to read the retainer agreement when they signed up with their divorce attorney of choice.

How A Retainer Works

Just about any divorce lawyer you talk to is going to want an upfront retainer fee before they will do any work on your case.  The retainer fee is also called a deposit.  A good way to look at a deposit is as your first payment toward the fees that will be charged for any work done on your case.

A retainer amount depends on a couple of factors such as the attorneys hourly rate and the complexity of your case.  But in most cases, the retainer amount will be the going rate for you community and what they think they can get out of you before you walk down the street to the next building full of divorce attorneys.

I was reading an article in a self help book and it says that retaines are usually around $10,000 to $15,000.  I disagree. In my experience working in major law firms in Santa Clarita, the retainer amount is usually around $5,000.

But either way, that money goes fast when you attorney is charing you $40o per hour.  You do the math.  How many hours of work are you going to get on the $5,000?

The retainer you pay goes into the lawyers trust account and it is withdrawn from the trust account as the hours are worked and the fees are charged on your case.

Once the deposit is gone, the attorney will either send you a bill each month for the additional charges or ask you for a new deposit.

What A Retainer Is Not 

A retainer is not the total of your costs or the estimate of what it will cost to complete your divorce.

I have had too many people call me telling me their attorney blew through $5,000 and nothing has been done.  They thought that the $5,000 was the total cost of getting divorced.  It wasn’t.

You have to use common sense here.  There is no way an attorney can tell you the total cost of getting a divorce.  They may provide you with an estimate, but that is all it will be.

The only way to know your total costs of divorce are to work with a fixed fee service.  There are no attorneys to my knowledge that do this.

Our divorce service, however, operates on a fixed fee basis.  What we quote you for your divorce will be the total cost to get you through the divorce process.  No hidden fees or hourly rates here.  Give us a call to find out how affordable our rates are.

How To Interview A Santa Clarita Divorce Attorney

Let’s get this straight. I am no expert interviewer.  I just wanted to tell you about some common sense things about interviewing a divorce attorney that may help.

Meet In Person

You probably want to meet face to face with an attorney when getting a consultation.  A phone call simply does not do the trick when it comes to asking questions of someone you may have represent you in court.  Plus, don’t you want to look them in the eye and see the person who will possibly be showing up to court to represent you?

Remember, that it is not just you who is interviewing the attorney.  Many attorneys also want to make sure your case will be a good fit for their firm.  That’s right.  While some attorneys will take any case they can get their hands on, the better attorneys, and  therefore the busier law firms, want to make sure your case will fit within their framework and will be a good fit for them.

To Pay Or Not To Pay For A Divorce Consultation

That is the question.  There are plenty of divorce attorneys in Santa Clarita that will give you a free 1/2 hour consultation.  There are also ways to get a free consultation by using an attorney referral service such as the Los Angeles County Bar Association or San Fernando Valley Bar Association.  But is a free divorce consultation really in your best interest?

Here is my take on it.  You get what you pay for.  That was pretty deep, huh?  Okay, but here is some truth.  If you go to a free consultation with an attorney, do you think you are going to get legal advice or a sales pitch?  Attorneys know that they will have to sell themselves during this 30 minutes conversation with you.  Is that what you want?  Or do you want to get some answers to some of your legal questions?

I am not saying that you won’t get any legal advice during your free consultation, but expect a portion to be about them and how wonderful they are.  If you are paying for that hour, you are paying for legal advice all the way through.  Just food for thought.

Conflicts Of Interest 

Don’t be surprised if you call an attorney and they tell you they can’t work with you.  Conflicts of interest will keep a lawyer from being able to not only meet with you but prevent them from representing you.

If your spouse consulted with the attorney already, you can pretty much count on them telling you that they can not help you.  Don’t get your feelings hurt, they are just following the rules.  Attorneys will not normally advise you of the reason, but can you think of another reason an attorney would not want to meet with you?  They don’t want to be the ones to tell you that your spouse was just here…

Use your gut and instincts about the lawyer you interview.  If is does not feel right, then it probably isn’t.  You can read more about how to find the right Santa Clarita Divorce Attorney here.

We are a licesned and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce.  Please call us for more information about our affordable divorce assistance.

While we encourage those to represent themselves during their divorce and go through an amicable uncontested divorce in Santa Clarita, there may be times when you absolutely must hire an attorney.

If you spouse goes out and hires an attorney to represent them for their divorce, it leaves you with little option.  However, just because you need to hire and attorney to represent you duirng your divorce, does not mean that you need to get a pit bull lawyer.  Even when you are looking for an attorney, you should take the high road during your divorce.

When you hire and attorney, you should look for someone who will not only represent your best interests aggressivly, but who is also able to work hard to settle the case as well to try and keep it from going to court.

When looking for a laywer, try the following:

• Try to find a lawyer who will represent your interests. Whether your intention to be to try an settle or to battle it out in court
• Ask friends and family who have been divorced and ask for a referral.  Ask what they liked and did not like
• You should consult with more than one attorney to see who you mesh best with
• Check the Los Angleles County Bar Websites for complaints
• Call an attorney referral service for a referral to a divorce attorney in your town
• Check review websites such as Google and Yelp
• A personal referral is probably best, but there is always the good old Google search if your in a pinch.

Possible Warning Signs:

• The attorney tells you that you can get whatever you want if you just fight hard enough
• An attorney with a bad reputation in the community
• An attorney that is a general practitioner and does not specialize in family law
• Complaints on his or her record

We will be the last people to tell someone not to get legal advice.  In fact when working with our clients, whenever the conversation and questions start to run into legal questions we will inform them that in order to make an informed decision it would be best to get a consultation with an attorney to answer their questions.

By using our legal document preparation service and consulting a divorce attorney when you have a legal question, you can get both legal advice and a cost effective way of getting through your divorce.

What Is A Contested Divorce | Santa Clarita

I am a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  So why would I be writing about the issues of a contested divorce?

The answer is so that you can see the negative impacts of a contested divorce and show you the benefits of working toward an uncontested divorce.

In short, a contested divorce is where you and your spouse cannot come to an agreement on any or all of the issues surrounding your divorce.  So you decide to hire lawyers and let them spend your money trying to convince a judge that you are right.  All the while your spouse is doing exactly the same thing.  In the end, you let some unknown person, called a Judge, make decisions for you.  Sound good?

Maybe if I share with you the ugly of contested divorces, it will convince you to take a little more time in trying to work things out on your own with your spouse before going to battle in the court room.

Personally, I feel that hiring attorneys and going to court is a complete waste of time and money and not to mention the mental anguish a contested divorce brings with it.  And lets not forget to mention how this will effect our children.

That said, I understand that emotions can get so high in the divorce process that spouses want to fight or perhaps one of the spouses is just being unfair and there is no other way to avoid going to court.  If both spouses are completely convinced that they are right over a particular issue, there is no other option but to have a judge decide.

There are other times where it will be out of your hands and you have to go to court.  Such as when a spouse is hiding assets, lying about their worth or perhaps own a business that money is not well documented.

But before you rush off and decide that going to trial is your last resort, you should do some soul searching and make sure it is worth it.  Not just in the sense of money, but what it will do to your well being and your family in long run.  This is especially true if you have children.

We will discuss the issues of a contested divorce in more detail in future articles.

We specialize in preparing unconsted divorce cases.  Even where you don’t totally agree, we can help you navigate the court system.

How To Work Towards Divorce Agreement | Santa Clarita

Just because you are filing an uncontested divorce, does not mean that negotiating the terms of the final divorce judgment will be easy.  As you are probably aware, just because your divorce is uncontested, does not mean you agree to every detail surrounding the terms of your divorce.

To come to a divorce agreement, you are going to have to site down and figure out what the issues are and then negotiate the terms of the divorce.  It won’t be easy, but spending the time at the kitchen table hashing out the remaining issues will be time well spent.

There are a couple of ways it has been recommend you can work towards your divorce agreement.

Face to Face Negotiation With Your Spouse

As I mentioned above, it may be as much as just sitting down at the kitchen table to determine what the issues are that need to be figured out and then work towards resolving them.  This will be one of the most cost effective and meaningful ways to get through the divorce issues.  It is also one which will bear the least amount of emotional stress.

It is not as easy at it may seem at first, dealing with emotional issues with a person you are trying to separate from.

Use A Friend Or Family Member To Help You Negotiate 

Have a friend or family member you both trust and could rely on to help you negotiate the terms of your divorce?  If so, this might be good alternative to a face to face negotiation alone.  Again, this would be another option that would probably not cost you much, if anything, to do.

Having this buffer present may be just what you need.  They could even be the one who writes down what you two agree to.  Sort of a neutral third party you could go back to if you had questions about what you actually agreed to.

The time spent attempting to work towards a divorce agreement on your own, might be some of the most difficult things you will have to do, but in the end will be a decision that leaves you in a better financial situation, having not spent countless thousands of dollars on attorney fees.

When going through the divorce process, consider using our licensed and bonded legal document preparation service.  We have the experience it takes to get your paperwork completed correctly.  And because we have worked at the family law courts, self help centers and family law firms, we can help guide you through the divorce process when you have questions.

You might be surprised to learn that there are occasions where this occurs.  But don’t be, it does happen and there are times where married couples drift apart without every getting a divorce.

Whether it be because they were young when they married and just grew apart or that trip to Las Vegas, the next day waking up to find that they were married.

There is really never a problem until you start thinking of re-marrying and are forced to have to deal with getting divorced first.

If several years have gone by it may be very difficult to locate your spouse.  But you are going to have to look, because you have to give notice to them one way or another that you have filed for divorce.

The California Courts require you to make a sincere effort to locate your missing spouse before you can ask the court for a default judgment.  In fact, if you have no idea at all after an all hands search, you might have to petition the court to file a “service by publication.”  Service by publication means that you put an ad in the newspaper in an attempt to advise your spouse your filing for divorce.  This can be a lengthy process and is therefore advised that you first try hard to locate your spouse by any and all means possible.

You should attempt to do the following things to locate your missing spouse so you can get divorced.

• Try to locate the last known address
• Go to the last known address and ask about your spouse.  Try to find where they moved to
• Ask all friends, employers, neighbors, relatives and anyone else who may have known them
• Check with the local assessors office
• Search the Internet including using social media websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Use a private investigator or other service to locate them

If you are not able to locate your spouse through one of the above methods, make sure to keep a detailed record of your attempts to locate them.  Keep a log of everyone you spoke to and all the things you did to attempt to find them.  You will need to prove to the court that you made a diligent effort to locate them.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  Please give us a call to discuss the particulars of your case.

Can You Live Together During Your Santa Clarita Divorce?

Not only can you live together during your divorce process, but many folks have to live together during the divorce process.

Some divorcing couples continue to live together even after they have agreed to the divorce.  In fact, a large majority of my clients continue to reside together throughout the entire divorce process.

It is not uncommon that the main reason behind continuing to live together even though they have decided to get divorced is money.  In most cases, the standard of living as far as housing is concerned probably will not be the same.  It’s just a numbers game.  Where you had two incomes to support the family unit, that same money essentially need to be spread across 2 households.  Plus, lets not forget that your incomes are not combined anymore.

Sometimes in contested cases, the date of separation can become an issue so staying together could have some risks for issues that are tied to the date of separation.  When you file for divorce, however you will be indicating the date of separation on your divorce forms.

Most spouses figure out a temporary living arrangement whether they continue to live together or not.  Whether this be sleeping on the couch or separate bedrooms, most people figure out a way to make it work at least until they are further along in the divorce process.

Sometimes there is a disagreement of who should move out of the family residence.  Determining who should stay and who should go is probably best determined by the spouses keeping in mind the welfare of the children, if any.  Other than that, any legal reasons  why one should stay or leave the home should be asked of an attorney.

We specialize in providing an affordable flat fee price for getting you through the divorce process.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and can serve all the Courts in Los Angeles County.  We provide a 100% online divorce process which means you will never have to come to our office.