Get Your Los Angeles Divorce Finalized By End Of Year 2013

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We just received a notice from the Los Angeles Superior Court, Family Law Department, Downtown (Central) Courthouse.

The memo stated that in order to have your Los Angeles Divorce finalized and approved by the court by the end of the year, you need to have your final judgment submitted to the court on or before October 25, 2013.

So for those of you self represented clients who have had trouble preparing your own divorce and have not made progress, now is the time to get our help.  If you want to have your divorce finalized by the end of 2013, you need to call us so we can wrap things for you.

This deadline for submission of the divorce judgment is specifically for the Downtown Los Angeles (Central) Courthouse located at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 N. Hill street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

This is great news if you are one of our existing clients.  Yes, I am talking to you who call me every week for a status on your divorce.  What I normally have to tell our clients is that once we submit the judgment to the court it is out of our hands and we simply have to wait for the court to get to their file to approve it.

For those of you with divorce cases downtown and who submit their judgment before October 25, 2013, it seems you will have your divorce completed by the end of the year.

But wait. Let me throw a wrench into this.  What happens if your divorce judgment is rejected?  This happens more than you think.  In fact it happens to people 3 to 4 times in some cases before the judgment finally gets reviewed.

If your divorce judgment was rejected and you want to get it resubmitted by the deadline, give us a call.  We have a judgment review process where we can quickly review you entire case and make the necessary corrections and get it resubmitted.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in California divorce.

Completing California Divorce Property Judgment Correctly

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are representing yourself in your divorce in California and are now working on your divorce judgment package, make sure to read this article.

You will soon find (or have found) that the divorce judgment package is the most difficult part of the divorce paperwork.  People routinely have their divorce judgment packages rejected 2, 3 and even 4 times adding years to the day they finalize their divorce.

This article is specifically about the property order portion of the divorce judgment.  This is the part where you are listing your property and who is getting what.  It is divided up by community property and separate property.

Lately the courts have been getting very particular about how you identify your property on the judgment.  We used to be able to identify the property very basically, but now they want specific account numbers, licensed plates of vehicles, etc.

You can no longer simply say “Chase Checking Account”  You now have to list the account numbers.

Here is a list of how to properly describe your property.

  • For vehicles – Year, Make Model and License Number – If you leave out the license number of just one vehicle you risk having your judgment rejected.
  • For bank accounts, credit cards, investments, loans – List the name of the bank and the last 4 digits of the account number. You don’t want to put the full account number because technically it is public record.
  • For Homes- You need to put the full legal description of all properties.  The home address alone will not suffice.  You can get the legal description off your deed.

The above areas is where we find folks representing themselves having trouble with the judgment when submitting their divorce case.  Using the the information above will increase the odds of having your divorce judgment approved.

We have written many articles on the difficulty of getting your California divorce judgment approved by the courts.

If you have had your California divorce judgment rejected, we have a judgment review service where we can review your entire case and make sure it is correct and resubmit it for you.

If you have not completed your divorce judgment yet, this is a good time to get our assistance in preparing your divorce judgment.  We have a lot of clients that come to us for this service.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in California divorce.  We can help you anywhere in California with your divorce case.

Default California Divorce Judgment | Can You Terminate Spousal Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This is a follow up article to our discussion on how to terminate spousal support on long term marriages in California.  That article spoke about how and if you can terminate spousal by agreement in your divorce.

This article will discuss how and if you can terminate spousal support when you have a long term marriage and you are filing your divorce by default.

By default, simply means that your spouse did not file a response.

The Court says that if you have a marriage over 10 years that jurisdiction for spousal support will be indefinite.  We have filed many default divorce judgments in California and the filing party wanted to terminate spousal support despite it being a long term marriage.

At first we tried to submit default judgments per the clients request, knowing that it would get rejected by the court, but sometimes that is the only way you can prove your right.

When this happened, folks going through divorce were stuck having indefinite jurisdiction on spousal support with no other options.

But you do have one last option you can use if you really want to terminate the Courts jurisdiction on spousal support on your long term marriage in California.

There is a form called “Request For Default Setting” and is form FAM-031.  This form is used when you have filed or are filing concurrently a Request To Enter Default.

If you look at the form, you will notice that you can set a default hearing if you are seeking to obtain a judgment based on the fact that you a requesting to terminate spousal support in a marriage over 10 years.

We have begun filing many of these Request For Default Settings lately because our clients don’t want to be stuck with indefinite jurisdiction over spousal support simply because their spouse did not respond.

We have not had any default hearings set yet, but we will report back when our clients begin to go to these hearings and let you now what the Court is asking in order to approve the termination of spousal support on a long term marriage default divorce judgments.

Van Nuys Divorce Motions Now 90 Days Until Hearing

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We just learned that Van Nuys divorce motions are taking 90 days to get a hearing.  This means from the time you file a Request For Order (RFO) it will be at least 90 days until you will see the judge.

(By the way, we can help you prepare a motion (request for order) if you are looking to file a motion or respond to one.)

This is bad news for those who are filing a motion with the court to modify child support or spousal support or need any type of orders for that matter.

We had previously written in the past on this topic where we reported that divorce motions were taking up to 60 days, which at the time was up from 45 days.

It appears the the service we can expect from the Los Angeles Divorce Courts are getting worse.  This is, by far, the longest time frames we have seen recently.  I spoke to our attorney service who files all our court documents everyday and they said that the Van Nuys divorce court is by far the worst when it comes to getting a hearing.

I don’t know if it is because it is October and the court has a lot of day of coming up that the court will be closed due to holidays and Judges out due to vacation or not, but we could only hope.  Because if this is a consistent issue, we will not likely see any improvements.

You have to keep this in mind when you are going to file a motion.  If you need an order right away, you are going to want to file a motion as soon as possible.  Today is September 30, 2013 and I was told by Van Nuys Court that they are already scheduling motions and hearing into January.

Let me give you a little reality on what this means.  Lets say you need to file a motion for child support or spousal support.  You are filing because your spouse won’t agree out of court to pay any support.

Obviously there is a need for support and you need money.  So you file your motion and you have to wait 90 days.  This is 90 days until the hearing only.  It is not like you are going to get a check from you spouse at the hearing!

Sometimes, after the hearing, the person who filed the motion will be asked to prepare an order after hearing that both parties would have to sign.  This process can add at least another month. Once you get that signed, you need to submit it to the court for the judge to sign.  Yes, you got it!  Another month indeed.

So now you are looking at almost 5 months before your request for spousal support or any order you request to take effect.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce in California.  We provide a flat fee pricing schedule to make divorce affordable.

 

How To Find My California Divorce Case Number

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I am often asked how someone going through a California divorce can find their divorce case number.  While the case number is found on the divorce documents themselves, what if you lost them and need to get a copy.  The first thing you will need is your case number.

To keep the California divorce process slightly confidential, California does not have a way you can locate your case number online.  But the courts do make available that ability at the courthouse.  So while you can’t get that information from your home computer, you can if you go down to the court.

Some of the courthouses have a public access computer for use in the clerks office.  If this is available in your court, you are able to search by name.  When you do this you will be able to find your and your spouses name and locate your case number.

If the court does not have a public access computer, you can ask for them to look up your case number.  They will usually require that you show them identification so they know it is you looking up a case and not trying to get information on someone else.

I have had people call me who had filed for divorce in California many years ago and wanted to see if their case was still open.  They now wanted to proceed and thought their case would have been dismissed.  It is a good idea to check first.  While the rule of thumb is that the court will dismiss cases after 5 years, it does not happen all the time.

If you find that your old case is still open, it is better to continue on with that one as it will save you court fees.  If you file a new case, you will have to pay the filing fee again.

Santa Clarita Divorce Consultation

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are going to get divorced and live in Santa Clarita, you will most likely need a Santa Clarita divorce consultation at some point.

We offer free divorce consultations either over the phone or in our office.  It is really just your preference.  Most of our divorce consultations occur over the phone and then an appointment is set to come in and get started.

We are a licensed divorce paralegal service in Santa Clarita.  Known as Legal Document Assistants, we can take care of your entire divorce from start to finish for one flat fee.  Because we are not a law firm, we can and do, in most cases, work with both spouses who are working toward an amicable divorce.

We are a full service divorce legal service.  We are able to prepare, file and serve all your divorce forms.  We can help you to figure out what child support and spousal support guidelines are and prepare your final judgment.

Basically, we do everything a divorce law firm does, except give legal advice and represent you in court.

The best way to contact us for a Santa Clarita Divorce Consultation is simply to pick up the phone and call our local Santa Clarita office.   No appointment is necessary for a phone consultation, you can simply just call.  However, if you wanted to come in it is important that you schedule an appointment with us as we operate by appointment only so we can provided the best customer service possible.

We don’t charge for our Santa Clarita Divorce Consultations.  That is a rarity in the legal industry.  You will find that most attorneys will charge anywhere from $150 to $400 for a one hour divorce consultation in Santa Clarita.

So please feel free to give us a call.  The direct number to our office is 661-281-0266.  We serve all the courts in Los Angeles County and specialize in only divorce.

Cheap Divorce Service In Lancaster California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We offer a cheap and affordable way to complete your California Divorce.  The good news is that our cheap divorce service is also a full service process where we will take care of everything for you.

Our cheap divorce California Divorce service in Lancaster, California works off a flat fee pricing plan which you can find on this website by visiting our pricing page above.

I want to share with you why our services are so cheap and how we are able to save you money.

When you file for divorce in Lancaster, California you will be required to pay a filing fee.  As of this article, the cost to file for divorce in Lancaster (Los Angeles County) is $435.

If you follow the instructions of the court, they will tell you that your spouse will have to file a response to enter the divorce case.  This is not necessarily true and I want to let you in on a little secret that will help keep your California divorce cheap.

There is a process called a Hybrid Divorce.  This is where you can file for divorce with just a single filing fee.  This will save you $435.

Nobody but our firm, to my knowledge, are letting folks in on this little secret.  But we have been talking about it for years and have done many articles and videos about how to keep your divorce cheap by using the hybrid divorce process.

Our divorce prices might be cheap, but we are full service.

Here is what our Cheap divorce in Lancaster does:

  • Complete all the divorce forms.
  • File them with the court
  • Serve your spouse
  • Complete, file and serve all documents
  • Help you determine child support and spousal support
  • File final judgment with court

We take care of everything.  You won’t have to go to court, or waste time and money trying to figure out how to do your divorce on your own.

We have helped tons of clients in Lancaster get through their California Divorce.

Give us a call.  We have a free consultation and can even prepare your entire divorce case online.

You can reach us at 661-281-0266.

Online California Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have been making a big marketing push to talk about our Online California Divorce Service.  Our Online California Divorce Service is unlike any other online divorce service out there, so you are going to want to keep reading.

First, let’s talk about these other services out there.

When you do your research for Online California Divorce Services, you will find numerous companies stating they provide an online divorce service in California. The issue is that these services are completely automated and there is nobody to review what you have done.

It is called automated document assembly.  Essentially, you enter  your info into a long questionnaire and your answers are populated onto the forms.  First issue is that nobody reviews your documents. Second, the divorce forms the online divorce companies use are usually outdated. Third, you have to do all the filing and serving of your documents.

That is not the case when you use our service.  We take care of everything for you.  We will complete all your forms.  On our initial appointment, we will meet with you over the phone and complete the initial documents.  No questionnaires to fill out.

Once we have the initial divorce documents completed, we will send to you to sign and return.  Once received back, we will file them with the court and then serve them on your spouse.  Service can be completed by process server and in most cases by mail in amicable divorce cases.

Our California Online Divorce Service will work just like this throughout the process with us preparing all the documents for you and explaining the process and answering your questions along the way.

With our California Online Divorce Service, we don’t leave you with all the document and hard work.  That is included in our full service Online California Divorce Service.

Please give us a call to discuss your specific divorce case.  We would be happy to assist you.  You can reach us at 661-281-0266.

Divorce661.com Reviews & Ratings

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

At Divorce661.com we have many happy clients who give us great reviews and ratings.  Usually these reviews and ratings of our divorce service in Santa Clarita are by way of a simple email or kind word in our office.

Many of these reviews and ratings are never made official.  So we  thought we would discuss our reviews and ratings from our clients.

While there are review sites out there such as Yelp, most people simply don’t want to write a review or rating on a public forum or online for all to see.  We completely understand folks who don’t want to write a review or rating on our divorce service for purposes of privacy.

But as mentioned above, we do get many “Thank You’s”, “Couldn’t Have Done It Without You”, and “You’re A Godsend” in person comments and emails on a daily basis.

Customer reviews and ratings are a popular search term on companies.  We realized that, prior to this post, there really was no listing for reviews or ratings on our company aside from the major review and rating online companies.

At Divorce661.com we take our job very seriously and customer satisfaction is our top priority.  We live in the same neighborhoods in Santa Clarita as our clients and see them in the local grocery stores.  It is important to us to have a good reputation in Santa Clarita.

This model has served us well as we have received great reviews and ratings from our clients and this is further proven by the amount of referrals we receive from our clients.  When a client give us a referral to one of their friends or family, that they are trusting us to take as good as care of them as we did them.

So to those who have written public reviews and ratings or have written us a kind not or just showed your appreciation, we thank you.

Divorce661.com is owned by Tim Blankenship, a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm, headquartered in Santa Clarita.  Divorce661.com provides an affordable divorce service to all of California.

Where Can I Get A Cheap Divorce In Los Angeles

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, so I can only assume you searched for information of where you can get a cheap divorce in Los Angeles.  You have come to the right spot if you are looking for a cheap divorce in Los Angeles.

If you are looking for a cheap divorce in Los Angeles, then you are going to want to use a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce. Legal Document Assistants are essentially paralegals that are allowed to work directly with clients going through divorce without the supervision of an attorney.  The result is that you don’t have to pay expensive attorney fees when you work with a service like ours that specializes in divorce in Los Angeles.

Our cheap divorce service in Los Angeles is based upon a flat fee structure.  This way you know exactly how much your Los Angeles divorce is going to cost you.

Our prices are as cheap as $599.  This is for a full service divorce process.  So let’s talk about what you get here.

We take care of everything including:

  • Preparing your divorce forms
  • Filing your divorce forms with the court
  • Serving all divorce forms
  • Preparing a hybrid or default judgment
  • preparing final divorce judgment papers
  • Determination of child support
  • Determination of Spousal Support

If you are going to price shop for a cheap divorce in Los Angeles, make sure that you are getting and apples to apples comparison.  Some companies are not licensed and are operating illegally. Some companies are not going to file your documents for you or have hidden fees.  Some companies have you fill out a questionnaire.

The point I am trying to make is that you have to be careful when deciding who you are going to use to complete your Los Angeles Divorce.  You know what you get when something is cheap.

I know I titled this article “Where Can I Get A Cheap Divorce in Los Angeles” but only because there is a lot of people searching for this service with those terms.  Don’t be fooled.  We provide an excellent, full service divorce solution for a flat fee.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in providing divorce services directly to the consumer in Los Angeles. Please give us a call for more information about or Los Angeles Divorce Service.

Much of what we do is right over the phone and you do not have to travel to our office if you chose not to.