California Annulment of Marriage Rules : Can You File For An Annulment?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Annulment of Marriage Rules : Can You File For An Annulment?

Today we are talking about Annulments in California also known as Nullity of a marriage in California. We get calls asking about the process for annulments pretty often. However, there is a big myth when it comes to the rules and guidelines one must meet in order to qualify for an annulment.

Length Of Marriage Does Not Matter With California Annulments or Nullities

The biggest myth, or should I say the only myth when it comes to annulments in California is that of the duration of the marriage. Many people believe that they can get an annulment if they were married for a very short time.

This is a myth about annulments that we get from T.V. I can think of one movie in particular, The Hangover, where Doug get’s married and does not remember because they had taken drugs. The next morning they go back to the wedding chapel and ask if they do annulments because they got married last night. ( I will come back to this, because it brings up an actual reason for a nullity)

6 Ways To Qualify For A Nullity of Marriage in California

There are only 6 reasons that you can qualify to have your marriage annulled

There are only 6 reasons you can claim to ask the court to annul your marriage. We are going to be talking about nullity based upon a Voidable Marriage. You see, that is what is happening with a nullity is that you are nullifying or voiding the marriage based on one of 6 reasons.

  1. Petitioner’s age at time of registration of domestic partnership or marriage – the party filing for the annulment was under 18 years old at the time of the marriage or domestic partnership.
  2. Prior existing marriage or domestic partnership – Either party was already legally married or in a registered domestic partnership. This is different from bigamy (which is automatically illegal) because, in this case, the marriage or domestic partnership took place after the former spouse or domestic partner was absent for 5 years and not known to be living or generally thought to be dead.
  3. Unsound Mind – either party was of “unsound mind” or unable to understand the nature of the marriage or domestic partnership, including the obligations that come with it.
  4. Fraud – Either party got married or registered the domestic partnership as a result of fraud. The fraud must have been about something vital to the relationship that directly affected why the party who was deceived agreed to the marriage or domestic partnership. Some examples are marrying only to get a green card or hiding the inability to have children.
  5. Force – either party consented to getting married or filing a domestic partnership as a result of force.
  6. Physical Incapacity – the parties got married or registered a domestic partnership while 1 of them was “physically incapacitated” (basically, it means that 1 of the spouses or partners was physically incapable of “consummating” the relationship) and the incapacity continues and appears to be “incurable.”

So as you can see, the reasons to qualify for a nullity are pretty stiff and time or duration of the marriage is not one of them. In all my time I have completed thousands of divorce cases, and only 3 nullities. Two of them were for prior existing marriages. Meaning, when they got married, one of them was still currently married.

These types of cases are pretty easy to prove. They were previously married and cannot provide proof of a valid divorce and then go remarried. In this case the parties agreed to nullify the marriage.

In the other case of nullity that I handled, the parties got married after a week of drinking and doing drugs and neither party realized what they had done. This was a case where the nullity of their marriage was approved by the court.

Nullities must be approved/ ordered by the court

When you file for a nullity of your marriage, the process is much different than with divorce. You see, with a divorce, you do not have to have a reason and it is just called irreconcilable differences. With nullity you need to prove one of the 6 reasons to the court and they have to agree with your rationale.

Procedurally, this means that on top of filing for a nullity, you also have to file a Request For Order and have a hearing set for the court to hear your evidence as to why a nullity should be granted.

Now back to my example about the movie The Hangover. While they could not get a nullity based on the short term duration of the marriage (at least not in California – Perhaps in Las Vegas), they could try based upon “unsound mind”.

Personally, I think that it should be easy to nullify your marriage in California. People do make mistakes. In fact, I got a call last week and the wife was asking about nullities and I had to break the above news to her. They had only been married for 4 days and both the husband and wife realized that it was a mistake.

Unfortunately, this will just have to be one of life’s learning lessons and will simply have to get divorced. The only real issues is that these people were very young, in their early twenties, and from now on, whenever asked, will have to indicate they are divorced instead of single.

That is until they get married again.

 

 

 

 

FL-180 : The Court Acquired Jurisdiction Of The Respondent On

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

FL-180 : The Court Acquired Jurisdiction Of The Respondent On

This article explains what date you should put on the FL-180 on number 3 where it says, The Court acquired jurisdiction of the Respondent on (Date)

So we know the court is looking for a date, but what date?

You can see that there are 2 options. Either the date the respondent was served or the date the respondent appeared.

You can use either date, the date of service or the date the respondent appeared. The date the respondent was served is pretty clear. Whether they were served personally, or by having them sign a notice and acknowledgment of receipt, you will use either the date they were personally served or the date they signed the FL-117.

But what are they talking about as far as, “The date the respondent appeared”?  The date the respondent appeared is the date the respondent filed their response. That is their “appearance”.

It really does not matter which date you use. We generally will use the date of service because that is usually a sooner date as the Respondent is usually served before they file the response. However, when there is a Response filed to the divorce case we do tend to use the date of the response or appearance to show the court that this is an uncontested divorce.

Default California Divorce : Default Without Agreement Issues

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Default California Divorce : Default Without Agreement Issues

There are different types of divorce cases, procedurally, that you may find yourself in. The topic here is issues related to filing a default California divorce case also known as a default without an agreement.

Most people don’t start off with the intent of filing a default divorce case. Most people file for their California divorce and hope it to be uncontested or at least where they hope that they and their may come to an agreement at some point.

Different Ways Of Filing Your Divorce Petition

When you file your divorce petition, there are different ways of preparing it. Meaning, if you know you will have an uncontested case, there is no need to include your property on the Petition itself. In fact, with our clients we never include any property on the divorce petition and simply state that it will be amended.

When we say amended, we are talking about simply including the property in the judgment itself, versus listing everything in the divorce Petition.

Here becomes the problem. When it comes to a California default divorce or Default without agreement (means same thing), the only thing you can ask for in your judgment is what you asked for in the Petition. The theory being is that the court assumes that the Respondent did not Respond to the Petition because they were in agreement to what was asked for in the Petition.

And if you didn’t list any property or proposed property division in the Petition, then you can’t ask for any property in your judgment.

This might be easier explained with an example.

Wife files for divorce in California. On the Petition, she simply files for divorce and does not list any property on the Petition itself. She does this because her and her spouse have already come to an agreement, and in fact, have a settlement agreement they have already signed. So her divorce case is mostly procedural at this point.

Then, the husband decides he is not going to do any of the divorce paperwork, as in the court forms, etc. So this leaves wife to try to finalize the divorce case as a default.

She files her judgment as a default and includes the marital settlement agreement that they signed. The court rejects her judgment because the Respondent has not filed his side of mandatory disclosure forms. So the court is assuming that she is trying to file an uncontested divorce judgment because of the marital settlement agreement and reject her judgment because of missing paperwork that needs to be filed with the court.

The problem is that even though she has a signed marital settlement agreement, the Respondent had not prepared his financial disclosures or signed any of the procedural court forms to make this a default WITH agreement vs. default without an agreement.

When she calls me for advice on the best way to finalize her divorce I have to tell her that it will be very difficult. Even though she had a signed marital settlement agreement, she still has a true default divorce case procedurally because he refuses to complete his side of the court documents.

But because she did not list any property on the divorce petition, she cannot file a default judgment.

So here is the fix. She needs to file an amended Petition and list the property on the property declarations, form FL-160 and file those along with her proposed separation of assets and debts.

So while she may have had an agreement to split the property a certain way, with the default the courts will fall back on California law and require her to split all assets and debts 50/50. This is usually a problem, because despite it seeming fair to split everything 50/50, they had agreed to a different division of assets and debts that was more fair.

This is why I always tell my clients it is better to enter into an agreement with your spouse. By coming to an agreement, you get to decide how you want to divide up your things. Property division does not need to be even or 50/50 when you are in agreement. You get to decide how you want to do this.

Many of our clients simply keep the assets and debts each of them have separately acquired, despite the fact that community property laws state a 50/50 division.

When in agreement, the courts do not look at how you are dividing your property or even if it is an equal for fair division. They know that you have entered into this agreement and that if you are signing the divorce judgment that you are obviously making this decision on your own and in your own best interest.

So for this client, unfortunately, she will have to amend her divorce petition and have him re-served. The other unfortunate thing is that when you amend your petition, you automatically set aside the default and give the other party another 30 days to file his or her response.

Most of where our clients who first try to do their own divorce get hung up is with court procedure. Yes, they also have trouble with the forms, but there is so much court procedure you have to understand to get your divorce case approved by the courts, that you will usually, at some point, need our assistance to navigate the California divorce process.

Santa Clarita Divorce Filings Up In May 2017 For Divorce 661

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce Filings Up In May 2017 For Divorce 661

Wow, I was so busy the first and second week of May that I haven’t even had a chance to write my daily blog post. While we normally file about 20 to 25 divorce cases in an average month, as of today, May 13, 2017 I have already filed 22 new divorce cases.

In one day alone, I filed 6 new divorce cases. I am not sure if that is a record day for divorce filings for Divorce661, but it was definitely note worthy.

There are certain trends I have seen since starting this divorce business in 2012. We see increased in filings from January through May or June and then a slight decrease in divorce filings in June through August.

The only thing that makes sense about the slowing down in June is that kids are graduating and summer is beginning. That is the only reason I can come up with for the slowdown during this time.

Then, when the kids go back to school, say around September, we get really busy again. This business will continue right up until about Thanksgiving when we see things slow down again. This slowdown runs us until the end of the year. This is pretty obvious with all the holidays towards the end of the year.

The questions is, are there more people filing during these months organically, or is it simply a build up over these slow months where people would have normally filed, but for the summer months and holidays?

Either way we stay pretty busy year round with about 20 to 25 filings per month. I can see this May we might be looking closer to 35+ divorce filings if the current pace keeps up.

Uncontested Divorce In California : Divorce 661

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Uncontested Divorce In California : Divorce 661

The purpose of this article is to explain what Uncontested Divorce means.

First, an uncontested divorce in California from a procedural viewpoint simply means that one party filed a Petitioner and the other party filed a Response to the divorce. That’s it. That is the procedural definition.

You see, there are different ways of getting through a divorce in California procedurally. There is Default without an agreement, Default with an agreement, Uncontested divorce in California and Contested divorce.

(watch video or continue reading below video)

Depending on what type of California divorce case you have, depends on how you move forward procedurally and there are different sets of paperwork depending on the type of case you have.

This is why it is important to know what type of divorce case you have as the paperwork is different. At Divorce 661 we have created checklists for each type of divorce. In fact, while I was working for the Los Angeles Superior Courts I noticed that the clerks were having a hard time distinguishing between the different procedures and paperwork and were just guessing.

And when they got confused they would just reject the judgment.  So after developing the checklists, it became easier to determine which forms were needed to process a California divorce judgment case.

Second, if you are wondering where the word, “uncontested divorce” came from, it is easier to just think of the opposite of “contested” or “contest”.  A contested divorce is one where there is a “contest” and the judge is the referee. In some states the Judge is often referred to as a referee.  Therefore, the contest is the trial in your California divorce case which the referee will decide.

And much like any contest or fight, nobody comes out the victor in most cases, everyone gets a little hurt.

This is the main reason I focus on uncontested divorce cases in California.

A Better Way To Divorce Than Uncontested Divorce In California

But did you know there is a better way to get through a divorce in California? If you and your spouse are in agreement, there is a more cost effective way of getting through your divorce than having the Respondent file a Response.

With each new California divorce case that I take on, I make an assessment to see which way would be the best way to move their California divorce case forward. If I determine that they are amicable enough to not have to file a Response, which is the case with most of our clients, then we will move forward procedurally with what we call a “Default With Agreement California Divorce Case“.

Many people have started their own uncontested divorce in California before reaching out to me for help. They will call and say they have already filed their divorce petition and they had their spouse file the Response.

What I tell people is that they have already wasted good money on their divorce. Again, if you are in agreement, a Response is not required.

So if you are considering an Uncontested divorce in California, please reach out to me before you file for divorce. If you are reading this and you already have filed, that is okay. Just make sure you contact me before the Response is filed so I can save you some money.

You see, at least 1/2 of my new business comes in from folks who have already started their Uncontested divorce in California on their own because they are trying to save some money which I totally understand.

But you are actually wasting money by filing the Response if you and your spouse are in agreement.

Then why does the Court tell you that a Response needs to be filed?

Because this is the traditional, proper way of getting through an uncontested divorce in California. It is a court of law and much like being sued in a civil complain, you are being “sued for divorce” and in court procedure, filing a Response is the only true way to officially enter the case.

The Court’s do not like that I help save my clients money and tell them not to file a Response. The courts want their money and I am certainly doing my part to help my clients by saving them money with court fees.

Divorce 661 is a full service California Legal Document Assistant firm specializing in Divorce in California. We can help you with your uncontested California Divorce anywhere in California.

File For Divorce In California Without A Lawyer : Divorce 661

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

File For Divorce In California Without A Lawyer : Divorce 661

In California you do not need a lawyer to file for divorce. In fact, you do not need a lawyer for your California divorce at all and can finish your divorce all by yourself. But is doing your own divorce the right thing do to.

Here are your options to file for divorce in California without a lawyer.

  1. File your own California divorce case with no assistance
  2. File your own California divorce case using the court’s self help centers
  3. File your own California divorce using an online tutorial (Check ours out here)
  4. Hire A professional Divorce Paralegal / Divorce Legal Document Assistant (That’s us!)

(watch video for more information or  continue reading below video)

Now let’s talk about these different options and the plus and minuses.

1.  File Your Own California Divorce Case With No Assistance

At first, doing your own divorce may seem like the most cost effective approach to doing your own California divorce. But let me warn you. You are going to pay one way or another. You are either going to pay a professional to handle your divorce case or you are going to pay with your time.

What I mean is, you will spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to prepare the divorce paperwork, countless hours at the court’s self help centers and having paperwork rejected by the court.

How do I know this? Because 50% of my business and new clients come to us after they have spent some amount of time (and frustration) trying to handle their own California divorce case before reaching out to us for assistance.

2.  File your own California divorce case using the court’s self help centers

Okay, we sort of touched on this, but this requires more explanation. The court’s self help centers are worth every penny. (hope you get the joke). They must be some of the most unfriendly people you can run into and I don’t know why.

The Court’s and the Court’s self help centers are extremely busy.  Most of the court’s self help centers are first come, first served. This means every time you need to go to court for help with your divorce paperwork, you need to get there at least 30 minutes before the court opens so you can get in line.

Why? Because the court’s will usually only assist the first 20 or so people per day. Some court’s even have a sign that says that! They will help more if they have time, but there is no guarantee.

Can you imagine having to do this several times? I estimate that you will have to go to the court’s self help centers at least 5 times before your divorce case is completed.

I am sure you have much better things to do with your time. And by the way, how much work and income are you going to miss “saving money by doing it yourself?

3.  File your own California divorce using an online tutorial (Check ours out here)

We came up with our own online do-it-yourself because there are people out there that have the time to do their own divorce. And our do-it-yourself divorce service is probably the best, most comprehensive online service you can find.

There are 1000’s of online divorce services and honestly before I created my own online service, I spoke negatively about the “other” online divorce services out there. You certainly get what you pay for.

What is nice about my online tutorials is that you get email support. Meaning you can email me questions to specific issues you are having and I will walk you through it. Because I am the actual person providing divorce services you can actually have access to me for questions.

With other online services, they are just that. No support and they are not in the industry so don’t understand California divorce as I do.

4.  Hire A professional Divorce Paralegal / Divorce Legal Document Assistant (That’s us!)

I know this is very self-serving, but if you are going through an amicable divorce in California, using our service for your divorce is your best options. Here’s why.

First, we save you money on court fees. How? I have worked for the divorce court’s in California and know all the different ways you can file your divorce. The way we do it saves you $435 in court fees. We do this by purposely having the Respondent NOT file a response to the divorce.

Second, we save you time. When you use our full service California divorce solutions, we take care of everything. We handle the paperwork, we handle going to court and filing document, we take care of all the procedure and processes so you don’t have to worry about it.

All you do is provide us with the information we need and signatures. That’s it.

 

California Divorce : Restoring Your Former Name Through Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce : Restoring Your Former Name Through Divorce

For those of you going through divorce in California thinking about changing your name to your former, maiden name, I just want you to know a few things.

  1. You can only go back to your former MAIDEN name. You cannot choose any name out of a hat.
  2. If you do want to go to ANY name, you need to file a legal name change petition and pay new court fees
  3. If you are considering changing back to your maiden name, but not sure because you have minor children and want to have the same last name as them (very popular answer) then request it in the Judgment and then wait until your kids are older to do it. (and save the money from doing it later)
  4. Lastly, common reasons for not changing your last name back. 1) new name is better. 2) had married new name too long. 3) Business people know you as xxx (real estate, doctor, etc.)

     

California Divorce Mediation : Is Mediation Required During Divorce?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Mediation : Is Mediation Required During Divorce?

While California divorce mediation is a good option if you are trying to get through your divorce without having to go to court, divorce mediation is not required in California.

There are a few ways to finalize your divorce in California. Either you come to an agreement outside of court, either on your own, through our California divorce service, divorce mediation, your divorce attorney or taking your divorce case to trial.

(watch video for more information or continue reading below)

I love when people call me asking about our California divorce paralegal service and tell me, “We just want to see what the judge will say”. This is entertaining to me ( i know, not you) because the fact of the matter is that no court and no judge is going to make any decisions for your unless you want them to and this is called a TRIAL.

And trust me when I say that the last thing you want to have to do is take your California divorce case to trial unless it is a last resort.

Do you think that a judge who does not know you, who hears testimony from you and your spouse (and who has listened to 100 other cases that day) is going to be able to come up with a decision that is better than what you and your spouse can come up with if you just sit down and try to figure out what is best for both of you? I don’t think so!

But I know this takes two, and this may not be possible, but I just want you to understand that the court does not get involved with the decisions you guys make in your divorce unless you cannot make them on your own.

So whether you come to an agreement at your “kitchen table” or through our divorce paralegal service, or through a divorce mediator, it will be far better than having a judge make a decision for you.

The purpose of this article was to indicate that you do not need a divorce mediator to handle your divorce case. If you need assistance with your divorce and are having trouble coming to an agreement, well this is a good reason to hire a mediator.

What we recommend at Divorce 661 is that you start your California divorce case with us and if you and your spouse run into problems that you cannot come to an agreement on, on your own or through our service, then and only then does divorce mediation make sense.

Give me a call and I will provide a free assessment of your divorce case and will assist you by providing you with the resources you need to finalize your case. Whether that be through us, divorce mediation or even if I feel you need a divorce attorney.

Uncontested California Divorce And In Agreement : Best Way To File Your California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Uncontested California Divorce And In Agreement : Best Way To File Your California Divorce

 

If you are going to file for divorce in California you need to know that there are different ways you can file your divorce case. The divorce process is the same in the beginning with what forms you file, but procedurally there are different ways of finalizing your California divorce.

For instance, you can file a default divorce, default with agreement, default with no agreement or uncontested divorce case.

(watch video or continue reading below)

 

All California divorce cases start the same. You file your divorce petition and summons. And if you have children you file a form FL-105 UCCJEA. In addition, your County may have a local form you need to file to establish jurisdiction which is fancy talk for proving where you live so they know you are filing your California divorce in the correct County and branch court.

But how you finalize your California divorce depends on a few factors. The purpose of this article is to discuss the best way to file your California divorce if you are in agreement.

What we are talking about here is what we call a “hybrid divorce” also known as a default with agreement.

A California divorce default with agreement case is very similar to an uncontested California divorce. The only difference is that you do not file a response!

But you are probably asking yourself, ” If I don’t respond, how can I be a part of the divorce?” Good question by the way!

The answer is found in a little known process known as “default WITH agreement”.

You see, people here the word, “default” and they automatically assume this means the other party did not appear or respond (which is true) and assume this means “True Default” which means they are not participating at all

The nice thing about a “default with agreement” type case is you get all the advantages of participating in the divorce without having to pay the filing fee for filing your Response.

With all our our clients, that is how we handle your California divorce case. If you are in an agreement with your divorce we will purposely have you not file the Response so you can save on the court fees. This helps offset the costs of using our service and makes it make or sense to hire us for your California divorce rather than doing it yourself.

Many people come to us after they have filed the divorce petition and their spouse filed the divorce response, but they tell me they are in agreement. If that is the case, they just wasted that Response filing fee.

Here is the short story. If you are in agreement, the best way to handle your divorce is a default WITH agreement. You get both get to participate in your California divorce and not have to pay the second court filing fee.

Call us, we can help. Whether you have already started your California divorce and need help finalizing or are just getting started.

FL-165 Request To Enter Default : Common Issues & Confusions

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

FL-165 Request To Enter Default : Common Issues & Confusions

When it comes to filing the FL-165 Request To Enter Default as part or either your California Default Divorce or California Divorce with agreement, there are many misconceptions on how it works.

There are two questions that are answered in this video. First, “Does the respondent automatically loose their rights to file the Response after 30 days?” and second, “Can the Respondent file their Response even after the 30 days and before the Request To Enter Default has actually been entered?”

Watch the video or continue reading below the video.

Do You Lose Your Rights To File Response After 30 Days?

Okay, let’s answer the first question, “Does the respondent automatically loose their rights to file the Response after 30 days?”. The answer is “no”. It is a common misunderstanding that as soon as the 30 days after service that you loose your right to file your response.

What you need to know is that nothing automatically happens when the 30 days passes. The Petitioner has to take a specific action and that action is that they need to file the FL-165 Request To Enter Default form with the court. So technically you can file your response anytime up until the Request To Enter Default is not only filed but “entered” with the court.

Can You File Response After 30 Days?

This leads us to the second question, “Can the Respondent file their Response even after the 30 days and before the Request To Enter Default has actually been entered?” The answer is Yes! As explained in the first question, nothing automatically happens after the 30 days and the Petitioner needs to file the Request To Enter Default.

But this form is handled differently than other forms that are filed because it needs to be approved by the default clerk and this takes time. For instance, when you filed your petition for divorce, they filing clerk simply stamped it and handed you a copy. But with the FL-165 the default clerk needs to review it. And because the court is so backed up, this can take as long as 30 days in some cases.

What happens is that the judgment clerk needs to review your file and make sure the proof of service was filed correctly and that 30 days has passed. Due to this delay from the time you submit your request to enter default and the time it is actually filed with the court, known as being “entered”, the Respondent can still file their response.

Let me give you an example. When we get calls from clients who tell us that they want to ask the court to set aside the default (which can be done) we first check the court’s website to see if the FL-165 has been filed. If we find that the FL-165 has been filed in the last few weeks, we will actually call the clerk to see if it has been “entered”.  This is because sometimes the court will show the FL-165 being received by the court on the court summary but it has not actually been entered. When they tell us that it has not been entered, we can go ahead and file the Response.

And even if the Request To Enter Default was filed, we can always file a motion to set aside the default in most cases.