How To Fill Out California Divorce Petition Form FL-100 | California Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

For many of you who are thinking about attempting to complete your own California divorce, I have put together a series of videos you can watch to help you with this.

This blog post and video below will explain the process of filing out the California Divorce Petition (Form FL-100).  This is just one of the forms you will need to complete to file for divorce.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that can help you file your divorce papers.  While we hope you enjoy the free information we have provided, if you are looking for an affordable professional divorce firm to complete your divorce, please give us a call.

Below you will find a step by step instructional video which will explain how to fill out the California Divorce Petition (Form FL-100)

The California divorce petition is not too difficult to fill out, but you need to make sure that you mark the correct boxes.

When you are completing the California divorce Petition, remember that you are letting the Court and your spouse know what it is you are requesting in the divorce. You will notice on page 2 of the Petition that is says “Petitioner Requests”.

It is important to indicate what you are requesting.  Especially if you are going to do a Default Judgment.  (A default is where the other party does not Respond). This is because you can only ask for what you included in your Petition (and nothing else ) in a default style divorce judgment.

The thought process is that you filed your Petition in which was served on your spouse.  If they don’t oppose anything, they can choose not to respond.  The court knows that they have been advised of your requests.  So you can’t later change what you want without notifying the other party by filing an amended Petition.

So make sure you let the other party know exactly what you are requesting when filing your California divorce petition form FL-100.

I Filed For Divorce In California But Did Not Serve My Spouse Yet

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I had a good question come up on our divorce chat service today.  This individual was searching for “how to dismiss your California divorce case”

The specific issue that they were facing is that they had filed for divorce in California, but had not served the divorce papers.  The divorce courts are now setting a case status conference if the divorce papers are not filed timely.  You can usually expect a hearing to be set within 2 months from the time you filed the divorce papers.

This party had the status conference hearing coming up pretty soon and did not have time to serve her spouse.  She wanted to know if she should go to the hearing and if her husband would have to attend.

If you have a case status conference coming up at the beginning of your divorce, in most cases it will not be with the judge.  It will be with the Facilitators office and they just want to see what is happening with your case.  Sometimes the letter regarding the hearing states that your case will be dismissed if the Respondent has not been served prior to the hearing. So make sure to read the notice of motion closely.

I advised her that she should go to the hearing to avoid potentially having the case dismissed. If this were to happen, she would have to refile her divorce.  This means filing out all the paperwork again and paying the filing fee again.

I also advised her to simply explain what was going on.  In her case, she was not sure if she wanted to continue with the divorce.  Since her husband already new she had filed, I told her it would be best to have him served and then just let the case sit with the court.

There are other reasons you may not have served your spouse.  I get a lot of calls from folks asking what they should do when they don’t know where their spouse is and that is the reason they have not been served.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service and are a full service divorce firm.  We can assist you with your entire divorce start to finish anywhere in California.

 

SCV Divorce Service Provides Free Chat Service | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In an effort to make divorce information more available and easier to obtain, we are trying a new chat service.

While we do get a lot of calls and clients from our website, we know that there are many more people out there who are just not ready to pick up the phone just yet and are still gathering information.

We get several hundred visitors to our websites each day and we think that a lot of people will take advantage of the chat feature to get to know us a little better.

We wanted to use this chat service so folks can reach out to us to ask us questions about divorce, the process and perhaps specific questions pertaining to them.

We also realize that many people are at work and cannot call, but perhaps would be able to chat from their workstation.

It will be interesting to see how well this works out.  Within a few minutes of getting our divorce chat service online on our website, we had a new visitor.  It turned out to be a salesperson trying to sell us something.  Have to admit, I did not expect that as a problem.

We really hope folks utilize the chat feature.  There are some neat options on the user end.

We are able to redirect folks to to specific pages on our blogs while we are on the chat.  Folks can also take a screenshot of the page they are on if they want to save the information for later.  They are also coming out with a mobile version where you can chat with directly from your mobile device.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce.  We hope you find our Santa Clarita Divorce chat service helpful while looking for a service to help you with your divorce or the information you are looking for.

How To Start The California Divorce Process | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have made several videos on how to complete your California divorce and are now making them available on our blog, divorce661.com.

The video below discusses the initial steps and divorce forms you will need to file for divorce in California.  It is a step by step guide on what the exact forms you will need to file to get your divorce case started.

We explain the divorce process exactly as we would complete it if you had our Santa Clarita Divorce Service completing your divorce for you.

We discuss how to fill out the California Divorce Petition form FL-100 and divorce Summons Form FL-110.  We will share with you the exact way to complete these forms on video.  You can literally watch as we type on the forms.  You could even follow along and complete your forms yourself if you wanted to.

We also go over some of the areas of the divorce forms where people have the most trouble and ask us the most questions about.

The video will also help you decide how to fill out the requests on page 2 of the Petition. You will notice that the forms says ” Petitioner Requests” and then starts asking about children and physical and legal custody and visitation, etc.

Now on the divorce summons, we discuss the automatic restraining orders that go into effect which are on the second page of the summons.  Make sure to read what that says.  The summons also advises the respondent that they have 30 days to respond.

Once you have watched this video on how to start the California divorce process and completed your initial divorce documents, you will need to file them with the court so your case number can be issued.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce. We are located in Santa Clarita and serve all the Courts in Los Angeles County.  Please give us a call if you would like more information about our full service divorce process.

Are You Looking For A Santa Clarita Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are you looking for a Santa Clarita Divorce Service?  Well, the search is over.  You just found Santa Clarita’s only legal document preparation company that specializes in divorce.

When we say divorce service, we are talking about our non-attorney divorce service.  We are licensed and bonded legal document assistants that specialize in divorce. What does this mean?

It means that we have the met or exceeded the necessary educational and experience guidelines to provide our divorce legal services directly to the public.  This means that we can operate without attorney assistance or supervision.

That is why we are able to provide much more affordable prices for our divorce services in Santa Clarita.

If you are looking for a Santa Clarita Divorce service, make sure to watch out for imposters.  Who are these imposters you ask?

Well, unfortunately the divorce legal services business is ripe with fraud.  That’s why there are licensing requirements.  To make sure we are capable and experienced so you are not taken advantage of.

Despite the rules and regulations, there are folks out there flying under the radar offering divorce services.  We have written an article about some of these divorce services that advertise on Craiglist that you will want to do your due diligence research on.

Sadly, we get calls that are lured into these fraudulently operating legal services who later have to come to us after they have lost their money to one of these companies.

As much as we talk and write about this in our blogs, there are simply too many of them out there.

When looking for a Santa Clarita divorce service make sure to do you homework.  Make sure they are legitimate and licensed.  Make sure they are operating out of a business establishment and not their home.  Make sure they specialize in divorce.

We guarantee that if you do these things, all roads will land you right back into our office.

We are the only licensed and bonded legal document assistant company specializing in divorce in Santa Clarita.

Should You Trust A Craigslist Divorce Service | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We do a lot of marketing on the Internet by writing informative articles or blogs. This is how we get the word out about our Santa Clarita Divorce Service.

The other day, a friend of mine recommended we advertise on Craigslist.  He said why wouldn’t you?  It’s free?

So being the savvy Internet marketer I am, I decided to do a little research on Craigslist to see if this would be an appropriate place to market our divorce paralegal service.

So I went to Craigslist and researched the “Legal Services” section.

My first reaction was “I won’t be caught dead advertising my service on this site!”

When I searched for divorce services I found all kinds of hole-in-the-wall divorce services.  What I found interesting is that the major idea behind advertising on Craigslist is to say how cheap you are.  Everyone is talking about price.  You would think they are selling used tires.

I also found that non of the people advertising divorce services actually have a website, business address or even a business phone number.

I looked up a phone number that was listed on one of the Craigslist ads for divorce services.  I Google’d the phone number which was tied to a someones home.  I dug a little deeper and found that not only was this company not a company at all, but that they were not even licensed to provide divorce document preparation at all.

This is the biggest problem with this industry.  There are too many people saying they are paralegals when they are not even allowed by law to provide services to people.

This is most likely why they advertise on these underground sites so they can stay under the radar.

If you are going to do business with a Santa Clarita Divorce service, make sure they are licensed to perform divorce document preparation.

You can find our Santa Clarita Divorce Document Preparation Service license right on our website.

These folks out there give a bad name to us reputable companies.  We end up having to fix everything they do wrong and they have zero accountability.  Don’t fall prey to the low cost hole-in-the-wall-won’t-be-there-tomorrow divorce services.

Give us a call.  We would be happy to help with your divorce case in Santa Clarita.

Our executive offices are located at 27240 Turnberry Lane, Ste. 200 Valencia, CA 91355 and you can reach our business at 661-281-0266.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce

Welcome to our site all about Santa Clarita Divorce.   If you are looking to learn about divorce in Santa Clarita and how the process works, you will find all the information on this website.

We continue to work hard to explain the Santa Clarita Divorce process in plain English so that people like you and me can understand how the divorce process really works.

We have had many people call us to say that our divorce website was the first site they came across that really helped them understand what is going to take to get divorced in Santa Clarita and helped them answer all their questions about divorce.

When you are considering getting a divorce in Santa Clarita, it is important that you are familiar with the process and understand all the ins and outs of what is going to happen.

That is exactly why we write so much about divorce.  We have now written over 1000 articles about divorce.  From “how to” articles with related videos to writing about our experiences and things you can expect when going through divorce.

Santa Clarita Divorce

We are the first place you should call when deciding on getting divorced.  We are not attorneys, so we are not going to blow a lot of smoke you know where. We just tell you how it is, plain and simple and in a language you can understand.

We have had people call a divorce attorney in Santa Clarita and then call us.  They said they had absolutely no idea what the attorney was saying.  This is not because the attorneys are not smart, it is because they speak in a language that only attorneys do.

Because we are not divorce attorneys, we speak the same language as you do when it comes to explaining the divorce process.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in Santa Clarita Divorce. Give us a call for more information about our Santa Clarita Divorce service.

Cheap & Online Divorce Services Actually Cost You More | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I write pretty often about those cheap online divorce services you can find on the Internet.  And today I want to tell you how these types of services can actually end up costing you more money in the end and how you could have had our Santa Clarita divorce service handle the entire case for you for less.

I received  a call from a gentleman who used one of these online divorce document services.  They paid around $300 for the documents to be prepared by them filing out a questionnaire.  They received the divorce forms and were left confused by what they had to do next.

So they started following the 20 pages of directions they received along with their completed forms.  Step one said they should file the divorce summons and petition.  They did this and paid the $435 fee.

In step 2, the instructions said for the Respondent to file the Response.  So they went down to the courthouse and filed the Response and paid another $435 filing fee.

Filing this Response and paying this fee was totally unnecessary and a waste of their money!

When you are going through an uncontested or amicable divorce, there is no need to file a Response.  There is a process called a Hybrid Divorce in California which allows you to go through the divorce process and only have to pay one fee.

So let’s do the math.  Because they wanted to save money (which we all do) they used an online divorce document assembly service at a cost of $300.  Next they filed a Summons and a Response.  At $435 each that’s $870.    Combined, they have spent $1,170 on their divorce.

Not to mention that they had to do everything themselves.  They had to prepare all their own forms.  Figure out how to file and serve all the documents.  And they have not even prepared or filed their judgment which is the most difficult task!

They could have used our Santa Clarita divorce service and paid less than $1,170 including our fees and the court costs.  We would have prepared each and every document and filed and served them.  These folks would not have had to lift a finger or waste their valuable time trying to figure things out on their own.

Unfortunately, this happens all the time and I get clients calling me who have had trouble completing their divorce with these types of services.

Don’t get tricked into using these cheap online divorce services.

Use our licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in Divorce.  We take care of everything and will save you money and frustration in the end.

Breaking Down Divorce Into Understandable Terms | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I was paid a nice compliment the other day.  A lady had called and said she had watched several of our Santa Clarita Divorce Videos on YouTube.

She went on to say how she liked the fact that we broke down the divorce process into terms she could understand.

And really, breaking down the divorce process is at the heart of what we do with our blogs, videos and podcasts.

We recognized that the divorce process in California is confusing.  While there is a lot of information out there on the web, it is hard to understand and is written in a way that makes you say, “what does that mean”?

So with that in mind, we have taken steps to break down the process in terms you and I can understand.  I will read something some lawyer or judge has said and then on video or in a blog post will say, “here is what this means in plain English”.

Another thing we have done in take the divorce process and break it down into understandable bits and pieces.  We take the process of divorce and make it more digestible by explaining what to do first and exactly how to do it.

We are fortunate to have many clients and lots of calls for help with divorce.  We simply take these questions we get and either write about them on our divorce blogs or post a video about it or do a podcast.  Sometimes we will do all three, just to make sure the information gets out there.

If you have questions about divorce, make sure to read this blog.  There are several hundred articles about divorce that we have written and answer most of the questions you will have about divorce and the process.

When you are ready to take the next step, please give us a call.  One phone call with us and you will walk away with a total understanding of the divorce process and what we can do to help you get through it.

We are a licensed divorce service in Santa Clarita and serve all of Los Angeles County.  Please call us at 661-281-0266 for assistance with your divorce.

 

Watch Out For Divorce Services That Cut Corners | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The business of providing legal services is ripe with fraud.  That is why there are many rules one must follow in order to become licensed in the field of providing divorce legal services as we do in Santa Clarita.

We have obtained those licenses to provide our Santa Clarita divorce service which required that we proved we had the necessary educations, experience and background.

Unfortunately, there are many that have no experience and are unlicensed who are out there offering their services to the public illegally and who put a bad stain on this industry.

Yesterday I received a call from someone who at first was asking about costs for certain services I provide.  I was asking some questions of this person who I later determined was calling under false pretenses.  Meaning he was not a real or potential client, but was asking questions as if he was one.

This person finally said that they were a process server who also provided family law services and had questions about how we operate.

Seriously, you are a process server and you also provide family law services?  He started to tell me how he does divorce cases and all the corner cutting that he does.

This person had absolutely no clue about how to complete a divorce, but had all the ways to cheat the system worked out.  Meaning how he could do as little as work as possible by not following the court procedure.

This is exactly the type of people that are out there offering their divorce services that you have to watch out for.

So when you are calling around trying to ask how much it is for a divorce, you best make sure to check if they are even licensed to provide the service.

I can guarantee that if you are shopping around for a divorce service  based on price and want the lowest bidder, you are going to end up with one of the characters.

I badly want to post who this person is as I found them online.  But i will just hope they read this post and figure out it was them.  I am just glad this person is not in Santa Clarita.

If you are reading this I suggest you either get licensed to practice in this field and pay your bond and go through the steps to educate yourself and the necessary training to be in this industry.

Or just go back to process serving and stick to what you know.