How To File Response To California Divorce By Yourself

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video we’re answering the question, how do you respond to a divorce petition without an attorney. Well the answer’s quite simple, I’m answering this question because I’ve seen it asked lot on the internet and I get asked a lot all the time but there is a specific way it’s done.

So, obviously if you have an attorney they’re going to handle that for you, if you hire us we’re going to handle the response for you. So, the question is how do you file a response on your own, essentially if you’re going to initially at least file by yourself. So, the trick is when you file the response it’s an FL 120 of course, when you file the response you’re going to need that as well as a UCCJA in FL 105 if their minor children, otherwise it’s just the response.

Now, the trick is you have to have served that response by mail, which is fine and obviously the person who serves it cannot be you, so the proof of service has to be attached to the response when you file it. So, a big problem I see clients coming to us who’ve started their divorce and they got stuck somewhere along the way, especially with the responses.

They’ll say Tim, the court’s not accepting my response because there’s no proof of service and the trick is you just have to have a proof of service already attached to the response in order to file it, otherwise the court will reject it. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. We hope you’re having a great day and we’ll talk to you soon.

Filing FL-300 Request For Order : Can Order Be Retroactive To Date Of Filing

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, we’re going to talk about the retroactivity of filing a motion with the court. So, let’s say you want to establish a new order and you’re in agreement with your spouse, you can simply draft what’s called a stipulation order.

It’s filed with the court and it’ll modify or make new orders and it’ll even supersede previous orders if you guys agree to that, those terms and that’s generally what we have our clients do and they’ll say Tim, we want to change something, I’ll say as long as you guys are in agreement it’s just a matter of putting together an agreement to modify that.

In the alternative sometimes, parities aren’t in agreement so, let’s say one spouse, say a husband wants to modify an order, spouse doesn’t want to, but he wants to 1st try and negotiate with her to do so. And what can happen is, in this particular case we had a stipulation that we drafted, he was hopeful that she would sign it and for 30 days he was trying to work with her to get her to agree you know, they were trying to talk about it, discuss it, which is all fine and dandy except for the fact that they were trying to modify spouse support and child support.

He was trying to reduce it and she was kind of delaying the discussion on that and a whole nother 30 days went by so, he’s still stuck paying the current order until it’s been modified. So, what happen was later we did file, 30 days later we did file a motion with the court, but he lost that 30 days in negotiations. So, what we generally recommend if you are in 100 percent that you’re going to end up in an agreement, regarding the stipulation and order is to file a motion at the exact same time.

So, let’s say today is September 5th and let’s say we file the motion today September 5th and then we also do the stipulation and in the same scenario, husband’s trying to negotiate with the spouse about signing the stipulation. Let’s say 30 days goes by, she doesn’t sign it well then, we just serve the RFO, the request for order and the date of retroactivity, the date that the order will be made back to will be September 5th, so no time is lost.

So, I hope you can see what I’m trying to show here, if you’re going to be in agreement, just do the stipulation, it’s easier, it’s cheaper, it’s faster. If you’re not sure if the other party will file or will sign the stipulation or agreement then file your motion, establish the court date, establish your retroactive date and take as much time as you need in negotiating that stipulation and order and if then that just falls through and there’s no agreement you still have your hearing on calendar and you still have your retroactive date of September 5th. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day, take care and thanks for watching.

Where Do Both Parties Sign California Divorce FL-180 Form

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video and podcast what we’re talking about is the FL 180 when you are filing a default with agreement type judgment. So, as you know there’s different types of divorce cases, you can have a default, you can have a default with agreement and you can have uncontested.

Each of these has different requirements as far as signatures. So, on the FL 180 if you look at page 2 you’ll notice that there’s a line for a signature but if you have a default with agreement case, meaning both parties are involved but a response was not filed, the respondent still needs to sign.

So, where do they sign, there’s only 1 line on page 2 of the FL 180. So, what you need to do is you need to add a signature page at the end of your judgment, the last page should be a signature page and the respondent needs to have their signature notarized when it’s a default with agreement.

The reason being is they didn’t respond so, you cannot submit the FL 180 with just your signature on page 2, you need to have a signature page at the end for both parties to sign and the respondent’s signature needs to be notarized. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.

High Costs Of Divorce Attorneys | $2,000 Just To File Divorce Petition

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, I wanted to talk about a conversation I had with a client who called, and we were trying to determine if it would be best for her to hire an attorney or to start off with our service so, here’s kind of the background.

Her spouse had already hired an attorney and filed for divorce and she’d been served. So, her question to me was you know, obviously we may or may not come to an agreement but at this juncture should I just hire an attorney.

So, amongst talking about other things we also started talking about the costs, about you know hiring attorneys and that retainers are anywhere from 5,000 to 7,500 and from a cost perspective we’re trying to see what would be the right decision for her and in talking about this she said you know, it’s funny you bring that up, my husband hired an attorney, paid a 5,000 dollar retainer just like you said.

They filed for divorce and had me served and he’s already spent 2,000 dollars of his 5,000 dollar retainer and all they’ve done is filed. So, I said okay in using that rationale let’s kind of work this backwards, with our service we at most, if you have kids and assets and debts to divorce we charge 1,000 dollars and they had already paid 2,000 dollars and all they had done is filed the petition.

So, the point of this is what I told her is look, if you want to see if we can get you through this for 1,000 bucks as opposed to what your husband is doing, a 5,000 dollar retainer, $2,000 of it already gone and all that’s been done is the case is filed. Why don’t we just get the ball rolling, we’ll file your response.

We’ll get you as far as we can, worst case scenario we’re 50 percent cheaper even if we only filed the response at that point so, in doing so she decided to use us and we have filed the response and she paid that flat fee and her spouse’s attorney, they are well over 10,000 dollars in attorney’s fees and we’re still at the 1,000 dollars that we quoted her for the flat fee.

Now, it may be that she needs to get an attorney at some point, but we’ve done so much of the work, the equivalent we’ll call it of $10,000 dollars of work for that $1,000 dollars, that she can now use that $9,000 dollars if we’re going to do the math for an attorney for actual litigation as opposed to just doing paperwork and filing documents with the court, which in my opinion you don’t necessarily need an attorney for.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. If you have any questions, please give me a call 661 281 0266 or go to divorce661.com for more information.

Can I Use Date Of Separation For California Divorce Beyond Date Of Filing

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video we’re talking about the date of separation you use on your petition or response when filing for divorce.

Now, this is not about what you should choose to use as your date of separation, a date you moved out, etcetera, we’ve talked about that in countless other videos. We’re talking about the day that you use, meaning you cannot use a date in the future for the date of separation. So, when you go to file for divorce let’s say, what is today, today is September 5th.

Let’s say you’re filing for divorce on September 5th but you’re saying that September 30th is your date of separation, you can’t do that. Your date of separation has to either be the date of filing at the very soonest, if there is no other date because you’re filing for divorce so there has to be a date of separation or any date in the past that would normally make sense.

It just can’t be a future date so, if you’re going to file for divorce and say your date of separation is on a specific date in the future then you’re going to have to wait to file for divorce until that point, you can’t have a future date of date of separation, it doesn’t make sense. You can’t file for divorce and say but our separation date is 3 weeks later from the date of filing of divorce.

I’ve only seen that happen a handful of times and both happened last week, so I wanted to make a comment on it, where a party said we want to file but we want to use this for a date of separation, I said well we’re just going to have to wait to file on that date. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope you’re having a great day, talk to you soon.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and we’re talking about stipulation and orders and you probably hear me talk about this quite a bit.

Whenever somebody calls me and they want to have new orders, or they want to amend orders previously made in their judgment they’ll call and they’ll say Tim we want to go to court and we want to modify the orders.

The first thing I’ll say is, well is there any chance you can come to an agreement on this because we can file what’s called a stipulation order and everyone gets to avoid court. So if that’s possible and half the time it is, half the time it isn’t, we’ll draft the stipulation order. Now when we send it out to you wither you’re doing your own or you need help and that’s why you’re watching this video or listening to this podcast is on the stipulation orders there’s a signature for both parties and the judge.

These forms do not need to be notarized and they can even be a faxed signature. So when we’re working with folks across California and we’re filing the stipulation order we do not need the same form to be signed by both parties. We do not need original signatures, and we do not need to be notarized.

So it’s actually pretty straight forward, pretty simple. Its things we can get done via fax or email, or we send you the agreement, the stipulation. You and your spouse, or ex spouse sign it and just fax it back, or scan it back and that’s all we need. No notary, no original signatures, pretty straight forward, 20 dollar filing fee to file the stipulation order and then you have a new order that modifies the previous order. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

If you have any more questions about stipulation and orders, fill free to give me a call 661 281 0266, or go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks for watching.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video we’re talking about the length of marriage used to calculate when filing your petition.

So when you’re going through a divorce you’re going to file a FL 100 petition form. When you file it it’s going to ask for a date of marriage and date of separation.

The date of separation determines the length of marriage therefore the length of marriage that you include on there as far as the years and months is going to be from the date of marriage to the date of separation and that can be different from the date of filing or the date that you’re filling out the forms.

So if your date of marriage was, or date of separation was 6 months ago you’re going to calculate from the date of marriage to the date of separation only. Not to the current date for the length of marriage.
In addition to that your divorce length of marriage is not continue to accrue but say if your divorce takes 6 months or a year your length of marriage discontinues and you use that length of marriage from the petition on all forms following including the judgment.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, thanks for watching and have a great day.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video I want to talk to you about how to avoid trial by filing your judgment. So I recently got a call from clients who had been going through divorce process for couple of years.

They’re in agreement, not in agreement, sure things happen in the divorce process and time just went on and they were several years in into the divorce and they’re actually in an agreement but the judge has become frustrated over time because multiple hearing set where they’re supposed to be coming to an agreement or turning in their judgment.

And the judge finally said if you don’t turn in your judgment by this date, come into court and I’m going to dismiss your case. So these folks called me, they were in an agreement and we had basically 5 days prior to the trial date to draft their settlement agreement, fully prepared.

All the procedural documentation, getting signed by the clients and get it down to court to be submitted by the court so they could avoid, number 1 going to trial and number 2 having their case dismissed which the court threatened to do.

So to let you know you can avoid trial. What we’re seeing with the courts these days, they’re trying to move cases forward. Where normally they wouldn’t get involved or they just allow continuances of even a trial, judges are tired of the trial dates being rescheduled, continued. So they’re basically putting their foot down saying okay, this is going to be your last trial date.

If you don’t appear or turn in the judgment we’re going to dismiss the case. So in this particular situation with 5 days to spare we were able to once retained turn in the final paperwork, settlement agreement, and judgment forms, get signed by the parties, turned into court.

Literally the day of the hearing at 8 30 with the clerk’s office, in the trial court and the courts were able to accept that and their judgment was actually entered and they had the ability to avoid trail and not have their case dismissed.

So if you’re going to trial and you’re trying to wrap things up and you find yourself in agreement we can always settle that by by turning in the judgment and you can avoid trial. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. I guess you call for more information 661 281 0266 or go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks for watching.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and this video I want to talk about a case we handled where the parties were not in agreement and 1 spouse had already filed the request in or default.

Typical divorce, 1 party files the other party will respond. Many times you have, well not many times, all the time you have 30 days to file your response. You can go beyond the 30 days, however, if you do there’s a risk that your spouse will file a request in or default, which basically kicks you out of the case. Now on this particular case we are not working with the clients yet.

They are trying to do their divorce on their own an they’re supposedly working together but the husband behind the scenes while telling his wife they are working towards an agreement, behind the scenes he was trying to finalize the divorce through a default. So while he’s telling her don’t file a response we’re going to enter a written agreement with the court behind the scenes he was trying to push through a default judgment.

So by the time she figured it out he had already filed the default basically kicking her out of the case and trying to do that behind the scenes. In fact, was even trying to file the judgment without her. So he’s telling her 1 thing, we’re going to work on an agreement and behind the scenes playing a game with the courts trying to push through the divorce judgment without her.

So what we had to do was set aside the default. So we had to file a motion to set aside the default and then ask the court to enter the response. That’s the process you go through when you want to set aside the default. I’ll say 99 percent of the time they will do that for a good reason. So what happened was we were filing the motion. We got a court date for the set aside and of course with the courts being so busy the court date was pushed out 45 to 60 days out. So this was going to give an opportunity for time to go through where the husband was still trying to push through the judgment.

Now because the courts are so busy and they may not be on the same page the judgment clerk with the actual court clerk, it’s possible that the judgment could get pushed through. So fortunately the husband did not know what he was doing and the judgment kept getting rejected but even though he knew that the set aside motion was on calendar and there’s going to be a court to ask for the default to be set aside he continued to try and file his judgment.

I think it was at least 3 times during the time we’re waiting for the hearing. He’s trying to push through this judgment as a default even though the default set aside was on calendar. Ultimately the default was set aside. He was unsuccessful in pushing through his default judgment with the court so now the case is going to trial because she wanted to have an opportunity to be heard and because he was trying to trick her into filing a default judgment that’s one of the reasons you can have the judgment set aside.

So even i guess the purpose of this video is that even if a default has been filed against you we can usually have the default set aside so you can enter the case and go to trial and be part of coming towards an agreement through the trial process.

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video we’re talking about what is the preliminary declaration of disclosure.

So when you’re going through divorce, one party will file the other will respond. The next step is both parties need to prepare their preliminary declaration of disclosure and I get asked often what that is. So here’s what compromises the preliminary declaration disclosure. You have your FL 140, which is the declaration of disclosure.

It’s basically a face sheet and then you have the FL 142 which is a schedule of assets and debts, and you have the income and expense declaration which is the FL 150.

Those 3 forms is what comprises your declaration of disclosure, your preliminary declaration of disclosure when going through a divorce in California. Tim Blankenship, Divorce661.com, hope that video was helpful and take care.