LA County Family Law Now Allowing Judgments To Be E-Filed

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.com. And what we’re talking about today is Los Angeles County family law finally got their act together and now allow for judgments to be e-filed. This is a game-changer. We’ve been doing this for 10 years and this really is a game changer as far as the speed we will be able to deliver our service.

We have always been on the cutting edge of technology with our my-case portal, electronic signatures, but the courts have always been behind the times. And we’re very thankful that LA county is now allowing for electronic signatures.

About six months ago they started allowing us to e-file the petition, which also was a game changer because before that, we had to have an attorney service walk them in, they would sit there, take a couple days to get filed and then we’d get them back. But now with the e-file of the petitions, we are able to get a confirmation that has been received. It still takes a day or so to get back. But at least we get that confirmation that they have it.

Same now goes with the Judgment now that we can submit the Judgment electronically, we can give our clients a confirmation that their judgment has, in fact, been submitted. Before, we had to package it up, make four or five copies, create all the envelopes and submit it to the court, but they would not provide us any type of confirmation because unlike the petition or other documents you file, where it goes to the clerk and they stamp it and give you a copy.

That doesn’t happen with the Judgment. When we submit the Judgment it has to be submitted to the Judgment clerk who then has to open up your file and then they process your judgment once they get to it, and that can be in one, two, three or four months lately has been the delay. At least now, we have a confirmation.

Once we submit it we’ll get email confirmation that it’s been submitted and we can get that over to our client so they know their judgment has, in fact, been submitted. Now, I don’t suspect that the Judgment processing timeline will be any better. But at least once it is processed, we will then get a confirmation that it’s been approved an email of the conformed judgment.

So this really is a game changer. If you’re using our service, everything now is done entirely electronic at least for a Los Angeles County is concerned. From petition to judgment, everything is signed through our portal. You can even upload now to our portal your signed and notarized judgment page. No longer do you have to mail those into our office?

So, again, this really is a game changer. And after doing this for 10 years, we’re really glad that technology is catching up with us.

Tim Blankenship, Divorce661.com, I hope you’re having a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.

Options On Serving California Divorce Summons When Spouse Out Of State

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.com. And I what I want to talk about today is the two different ways you can serve your spouse If they live out of state.

If you notice on the FL-115,this is the proof of service of summons. So we’re talking about serving the initial documents once you establish a case for the court in California. One of the options is what’s called a mail and acknowledgement service and specifically doing a registered or certified mail with return receipt requested.

This is on page 2 of the 115.So if you and your spouse are amicable and you do have a spouse out of state, you can, when they say you, someone else has to do it. Someone has always has someone else always has to serve the summons and petition and you can do that by mail. You can do that by mail within California using a notice of acknowledgement form 117.

But when you are serving a document out of state and you’ll still use the 117,you need to do it by certified mail and you need to do it with return receipt so you have evidence that it was delivered and signed for by your spouse or just slightly different when the other party lives out of state.

Now, let’s assume that your spouse is not amicable. Now with our clients that’s not the case because we only work with amicable clients, so this is never an issue. But that said if they refuse to sign or maybe they’ve moved and they no longer are at that address that you don’t know where they live. The next option is simply going to be doing it by personal service which is the standard normally.

If you don’t know where they live, my recommendation is you contact a process server company in that state and find one that is also a private detective of sorts that can do some type of background search and they can do a search and maybe find where they are listing their credit cards, or maybe they did a lease application or something like that because they do have to be served for the 6 months to start.

So if you filed for divorce, you know, two months ago, but you still haven’t been able to get them served your six months has not started yet. That six-month cooling-off period. So get a private detective service who’s also a process server. There are many of them out there. You can use a service like napps.org, it’s basically a site where you can enter a zip code or an area of where the other party lives and locate a Iicensed process server anywhere in the country.

Tim Blankenship Divorce661.com. I hope you’re having a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.

YOU Are The ONLY Reason We Can’t Finalize Your Divorce Case

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

YOU are the only reason we can’t finalize your divorce case.

What do I mean by this statement? I mean that we can handle any amount of complexity of cases related to assets and debts, children, child support and spousal support. There is nothing that can stop us from finalizing your divorce case, except you or your spouse.

We’ve helped clients with 8 children. We’ve helped clients with 10 homes. We’ve helped clients with millions in assets.

That is not an issue for us.

What is an issue for us is when clients hire us and then fall out of agreement or no longer are amicable and stop cooperating with the process.

That is the only thing that can stop us from being able to finalize your divorce.

And here is why.

We only work with 100% amicable spouses who will ultimately come up with an agreement. We will put you through the divorce process, complete and file all the paperwork with the courts. We will do it all.

However, if you and your spouse at some point fall out of agreement or decide no longer to cooperate, that stops us from being able to finalize your divorce case.

Why?

Because in order for us to finalize your divorce case you both have to sign the Marital Settlement Agreement that outlines all the terms and agreement related to your divorce.

So even if we prepare everything as you provided and agreed to, even if one party simply decides they are not going to sign it at the very end, this stops us from being able to submit it to court. This is because even though we’ve drafted the agreement, it is not an agreement if not signed by both spouses.

Which Party Should File The Divorce Judgment Modification?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you go through a divorce in California and finalize your judgment, there may be a time when you want to make changes to the original agreement.

When this happens you need to file what’s called a “Modification” or “Stipulation”. This would be in the form of signing a stipulation (agreement) to modify (change) some of the terms of your prior judgment or Marital Settlement Agreement.

What we are specifically talking about here, however is who should be the party to file the stipulation to modify the judgment?

That really depends on what type of divorce case you had.

We utilize a process called, “default with written agreement”. This simply means that the respondent did not sign a formal response. We do this to save our clients money.

That said, and because the respondent never paid a filing fee, if you file the stipulation to modify the judgment under the respondent’s name who did not pay the filing fee, the court will want the full, what they call “First Appearance Fee”, which is currently $435.

However, if you file in the name of the petitioner who has already paid their First Appearance Fee, then the cost to file the stipulation to modify the judgment is only $20 currently.

You Can’t File Income Withholding Termination Order Until Child Turns 18

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Can’t File Income Withholding Termination Order Until Child Turns 18 And Graduates From High School

The court’s have become very strict lately with the filing of termination of income withholding orders.

We used to be able to process them with the divorce court a few weeks before they met the criteria as it always takes a few weeks for the court to process them. Then they have to be served on the employer which adds additional time.

Now, the courts are not allowing us to file the termination order until the minor child has turned 18 and graduated from high school.

The problem this cause is that it always results in an overpayment of child support due to the court delays in signing the orders.

What Does “Further Order Of The Court” Mean?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.comand what we’re talking about today is what does it mean when your judgment or agreement in your divorce says, “further order of the Court”?

This can appear on your spousal Support agreement is mostly where you’re going to see it. And we had a question come up this week. With what does that mean in the scenario was there were some spouse support being paid for several years. The divorce was finalized and the They now want to have a new agreement to do a buyout.

And the concern was well, what does it mean? Because it says, you know, further order the court. Are we able to make an agreement that the court will agree with? And that’s how that works.

What we do is we draft the stipulation and the parties sign it. And then when that gets submitted to court, the judge signs it and that is the further order of the Court. Doesn’t mean they’re making the decisions. They’re just making the agreement you guys signed the stipulation, the New Order of the Court.

Your Divorce Is Not Amicable If It Starts Of Like This

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship with Divorce661.com. And recently we had someone schedule a consultation with us through our app on our website and the in the notes that said that they thought that the wife was going to be amicable.

Fortunately, he provided his case number so I was able to look up the case and what I saw was a couple of red flags to indicate that the case was not going to be amicable. One, the wife had an attorney. Two, the petitioner, the wife filed a motion to get spousal support, custody, visitation child, support, the works.

That is definitely an indicator that it is not amicable because if it is an amicable divorce, you don’t file motions to go before a judge to get the judge to make certain orders right off the bat. In fact, Court isn’t required at all when you use our service, when we put together a full agreement for you. So give us a call Tim Blankenship, Divorce661.com, Hope you’re having a great day. We’ll talk to you soon.

Couple Use Attorney For Uncontested Divorce – Still Unfinished 1.5 Years Later

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.com. What we’re talking about in this video is I had another call with both the spouses today where they had hired an attorney, they thought collectively, and told the attorney we want to hire you to handle our uncontested divorce.

And that’s fine. I mean you’re going to spend a lot more money than you need to then using a service like ours, but what happened was the attorney actually showed up on record as representing the petitioner, the wife, and that’s not so much an issue, is that going on a year and a half, what they found out is after all the money they had spent nothing had been finished. They filed the initial petition. They served the initial documents.

But after that, their case, just remained unfinished. And what’s worse is for several months there was no response from the attorney to move the case forward. And I can tell you why. This was not a money maker for the attorney. They had already paid their initial retainer, but there’s nothing they could bill against because they weren’t going to court. There’s better options. Give us a call.

$2,500 Paid To Attorney For Amicable Divorce And Case Not Finished

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.com. And in this video we’re talking about the fact that if you and your spouse are in agreement, you do not need an attorney for your divorce.

We handle amicable divorce cases, have done so for 10 years, and I bring this up because I had a call today on a consultation from a ne client who said that his wife had used an attorney and hired an attorney, obviously to prepare the paperwork, paid $2,500 dollars to process their divorce, Knowing it was uncontested and did the initial petition and filing and did the proof of service – did not help the respondent, the other party do any of their paperwork.

So they had their own fees, filing their own paperwork, trying to do their own thing. And in the end when they went to move the case forward, the attorney wanted another retainer.

So the $2,500 dollars wasn’t even a flat fee. There are definitely better options. Give us a call.

Restored Maiden Name In Divorce But Now Have Travel Plans In Married Name

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Tim Blankenship here with Divorce661.com. And what we’re talking about in this video is if you requested to restore your maiden name, in your divorce and you get your judgment finalized by the court.

Say, you know, it’s March 2022,but you have travel plans in September or sooner or later, doesn’t matter. And you get this court order saying, you know, you can now restore your maiden name. We’ve had this come up twice now with our clients.

They’re asking, do I have to run out and get this done quickly? Go Get my name changed. My driver’s license, social security card, and then change all the information on my travel plans, and the answer is no, just because you have a court order to restore your maiden name, doesn’t mean you need to run out and do it within any particular time.

Some people do it, 10 years later and that’s totally fine. They wait till their kids turn 18,and then they use that order to restore their maiden name. Tim Blankenship. Divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day. Talk to you soon.