Santa Clarita Divorce | Legal Separation Vs Divorce

Legal separation process is not faster than the divorce process.

We get calls where people are asking about legal separation and I’ll usually ask them are you doing this because you’re never going to get married again or for religious reasons.

And usually the answer is because they think it’s faster to go through the legal separation process than the divorce process. Now you would think it would be because there is no six-month waiting period,  I understand why you’re thinking this.

However on in practical terms when going through the process it follows the same timelines as the divorce process does. Meaning we have to file a petition for legal separation, it has to be served, a period of time has to go by before we can submit the judgment, and once the judgment is submitted, depending on what county in California you are in, it’s going to take two to three to four months to process that judgment.

And until the court signs off on that judgment your legal separation case has not been finalized and this is the same process that’s going to go through with the divorce case.

It’s not going to be done any faster so if you’re thinking of legal separation versus divorce because you think it’s going to get you there faster it’s not.

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To Start The Divorce Process

To start the divorce process all you have to do is file a few forms.

So the forms that you would file for divorce are the summons and petition and that’s really all there is to file for divorce. Now, if you have children there’s an additional form fl-105 known as the UCCJEA and then depending on your county you may have a local form.

So let’s assume that you have these forms completed – what’s the next step well the next step would be to file these forms and get a case number issued by the court.

You have to file them before you serve them, so once you file them you’ll get a case number issued by the court now they’re ready to be filed the step after that is they need to be served.

Now there’s several steps there are different ways that you can have these documents served if you are amicable like our clients are.  What you’d want to use is a notice of acknowledgment of receipt there’s no reason to personally serve someone that you’re friendly with especially your spouse if you’re trying to go through an amicable divorce and then irritate them because you had them served by someone.

Now you may want to use a friend or a family member or even a neighbor but honestly all you have to do is have someone mail it to your spouse and have them sign a notice of acknowledgment and then you would file that with the proof of service after you filed for divorce and had it served now it’s ready to do your disclosures.

The parties will do their financial disclosures share them with each other so you guys are aware of what all the assets and debts are that are on the table subject to division. And following that you will draft Your settlement agreement.

Now that was a broad Strokes overview of the divorce process more than just how to file if you’re looking for help with getting an amical divorce anywhere in California give us a call be happy to help

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To Avoid Paying Child Support

It’s actually quite easy we get a lot of flack on this on social media on YouTube people upset about us telling folks how to avoid paying child support.

But we’re not telling people how to get out of paying child support we’re simply saying for our amicable divorce clients that if you do not want to have an official child custody order as part of your divorce we can make that happen.

We’re not breaking any rules we’re not cheating the system.  There’s a process with the court where we can ask for what’s called a non-guideline order.

So in every settlement agreement that we draft for our clients we have to include a child support order, we can’t just say it’s waived, a lot of people say they want to wave it you can’t do that.

So what we do is a non-guideline order.  We still have to attach the child support order, we still have to do a child support dissomaster calculation,  we still have to give the incomes of the parties to the court.

And here’s what’s happened so we do the calculation and on the child support order we write down, yes, child support  calculated shows x amount of dollars however we’re asking for a non-guideline order per the agreement of the parties that they wish the child support to be set at zero as opposed to the amount calculated and in doing so essentially will not harm the child

That’s how we do it if you’re looking to get a divorce and not have child support.  And doing your own divorce it’s going to be very difficult because you’re not going to know the legalese that has to be included in the divorce to make this happen.

We’ve been doing this for 10 years aside from making the divorce process easier on you by us handling it as a full service for you anywhere in California we can also get you a zero child support order as well

When You Don’t Need To File A Response To Your Santa Clarita Divorce

Here’s when you do not want to file a response to your divorce.

If you have an amicable divorce case you’re going to notice when you’re going through either the self-help center or you’re looking online it’s going to give you instructions on what to do.

First step is going to say file your divorce case step two serve your spouse step 3 response to be filed within 30 days. I know it says it on the forms I know it says it on the instructions.

I know the summon says if you don’t file a response in 30 days your spouse is going to get everything they want and be able to finalize the divorce without them let me tell you this, I’ve been doing this for 10 years we do not have our clients purposely file a response because nothing bad is going to happen.

We are working with amicable clients going through an amicable divorce process and all the response does is generate more fees for the court.

A response is not required to finalize a divorce especially when it’s amicable. It’s called a default with written agreement you can Google it you’ll probably see videos I’ve done on this we do this purely to save clients money why pay the courts another $435 dollars if we can still get your divorce done on a single Court filing fee.

We are a full service divorce firm serving all courts in California.

Orange County Divorce Status Conference

Hearings

Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and what we’re talking about today is the Orange County notice of status conference hearing. If your case is in Orange County and you received one of these notices you’re getting this because your case is not moving fast enough and the Court’s calling you into court so you can tell you what you need to do to get your case finalized so you’re not lingering in the courts Forever.

This is a must appear notice which means you have to go to your hearing if you don’t there’s all kinds of threats they could penalize you they could even go as far as dismissing your case which you wouldn’t want to happen because then you have to pay your fees all over again, start from scratch, refile your petition and serve and all that good stuff.

But if you’re getting this notice just give us a call we can help you finalize your divorce quickly there’s no need to take time off of work again losing more money or using your vacation to go down to court and meet with the attorneys and with the court to finalize your case, just give us a call we’d be happy to help you out.

We just happened to do this we’re getting this one under the wire you can see here that it says that the Judgment that needs to be submitted 10 days and that’s going to be 10 Court days prior to the hearing and we are getting this in just under the wire so the parties do not have to attend court.

So if you have this hearing coming up and you want to get your divorce finalized you don’t have to just wait and then show up to this hearing give me a call we can help finalize your divorce well before you go to court and then you can actually avoid going to this hearing because you’ve submitted a full judgment to the court on all issues.

How Do I File For Divorce When Both Parties Agree In Santa Clarita?

There are different ways to file for divorce.   When both parties agree to their divorce and when you don’t.

There are several benefits to being in agreement with your spouse when deciding to file for divorce in Santa Clarita

CHOOSE US A NETURAL 3RD PARTY

When both parties agree to their divorce and the terms of their divorce the best option is to use a neutral third party to handle your divorce case.

If you are in agreement it makes no sense for each of you to obtain different divorce service providers.

This will just cause problems and add to your cost unnecessarily.

At Divorce661, we work with both parties in every divorce case.  We charge a single flat fee that covers both parties and the entire divorce process from beginning to end.

NO ATTORNEY OR COURT REQUIRED

Divorce attorneys are only needed when you and your spouse do not agree and when you think you may be headed to court.

They are also good when you just want to get some legal advice.

But if you agree to the terms of your divorce there is no court requirement.  You will never see a judge or even step foot into court when you use our Santa Clarita divorce service.

FINALIZE YOUR SANTA CLARITA DIVORCE FASTER

Another benefit is how fast we can finalize your divorce.  Depending on how far along you are on reaching an agreement, really dictates how fast we can complete your divorce.

Some clients call us and already have discussed the terms of their divorce.  In these cases, we can complete all their divorce paperwork and court fling within a few days.

Some clients have only discussed the fact that want to remain amicable and intend on reaching an agreement out of court and without the need for attorneys.

In these cases, the divorce process only takes as long as it takes for our clients to advise us of the terms of their agreement.

Still, we are taking maybe a few weeks. Never months.

The 6 month cooling off period still applies.  But we are having our clients’ divorce cases completed and finalized by the court in less than 3 months usually.

This means the court has approved it and the divorce case is done.  Then what the court does is post date the effectiveness of the dissolution of marriage out to the 6 month mark.

Think of it as a pre-approval of the divorce just pending the date of divorce to pass.

In any case our clients are happy to have their paperwork completed in a few days vs. stretching it out over months.

HOW OUR PROCESS WORKS

As mentioned earlier we work with both clients. We handle all the preparation and filing of all court documents.

The only requirement for our clients is that they provide us with the information we need to put them through the divorce process.

Some of our clients have a full agreement in place.  Some need to discuss it.

Others need a little bit more information from us as far as what are their options which we are able to provide so they can then make a decision.

San Diego North County Judgment Processing Timelines

This article is specifically discussing the San Diego North County judgment processing timelines we are currently seeing.

We handle divorce cases anywhere in California. And in doing so we are able to keep up to date with various court processing timelines.

And we try to publish this information for our clients and the public to have an understanding of some of the court delays we are currently seeing.

Our last few divorce judgments that we submitted to San Diego’s North County divorce court all took about 4 months once the court received it.

We are usually submitting our divorce judgments well in advance of the 6 month cooling off period. So the result of this 4 month delay is not causing our clients divorce cases to extend much, if at all, beyond the 6 month mark.

With out divorce service we usually have our clients divorce case wrapped up in a few days to a week or so.

It is a good thing that we do as this allows for any lengthy court delay which varies by County.

6 Months Is The Soonest Your Divorce Can Finalize

The 6 months is just the soonest your California divorce can be finalized.  It is not a deadline by any means.  And the divorce process can go well over the 6 months.

That does not usually happen with our clients.  As I mentioned, we usually have the divorce paperwork done in a few days or weeks.

This allows us to submit the judgment for review and not cause any delays beyond the 6 months.

How We Process Our Divorce Cases Faster

People wonder how we are able to process divorce cases so fast.

The answer is that we don’t spread the different stages of the divorce process over several months.

Instead we do everything all at once.  We do this so our clients don’t have to go back and forth with over time.

They are able to focus on their divorce case and end up working with us for just a short period of time.