Motion To Set Aside Default : California Divorce Default Set Aside Motion

This article, video and podcast explains what you need to do if the Petitioner has filed a Request To Enter Default with the California divorce court and the default has been entered.

When this happens, you lose your opportunity to file a Response and be part of the divorce case. However, there are steps you can take to ask the court to set aside the default so you can file your Response.  There are only a few reasons you can state for asking the court to set aside the default on your divorce case so you can enter your response. (read more below video and podcast)

This issue can occur if you wait longer than 30 days to file your Response. At any time after 30 days of you being served the Divorce Petition, the Petitioner can file a Request To Enter Default which will prevent you from filing your Response.

If you need assistance with filing a Request To Set Aside the Default, please give me a call. I can assist you with filing the Request For Order asking the judge to set aside the default and help you file your Response as well so you can participate in your own divorce case.

We live in a world now where anybody can leave a review for a business on such sites as Yelp, Google and Facebook.  It is just what we, as business owners, have to deal with on a regular basis.

What strikes me as interesting is that people get bent out of shape for some of the simplest of issues.

As of this writing we have about 33 or so reviews on Yelp. We have mostly 5 stars given to us by our clients.

However, we do have some 1 star ratings, but these have been written by people who are not even our clients, never would be our clients and who seem extremely rude and plain old nasty.  Some are people that had contact with our company such as scheduling a consultation or leaving a message with us, and others are just straight out made up accounts with the intent to disparage our company.

The purpose of this article is to try to understand why people, who are not our clients, go out of their way to write negative reviews. Some go as  far as to take screenshots and write multiple paragraphs filled with anger, insults and rude comments.

The most recent came from a lady who set up a consultation using our website. I was unable to call her due to a family emergency at her scheduled time. That is all that occurred. I didn’t call her when she requested!

She was so irate that she wrote multiple negative reviews filled with hate, anger, rudeness and personal insults. All that happened is that I was unable to call her!

I am not perfect and on occasion may miss a call or be unable to call due to circumstances outside my control. I even sent her a personal email to let her know of my family emergency and you know what she said? She responded by saying that she did not believe me.

All I can say is that I am so glad this person NEVER became a client of ours. I think the heavens were protecting me from this insanity and could only imagine if I had to deal with this person by assisting her with her divorce. Thank god I was unable to make the call.

I think people need to look at themselves as to why they are so angry with their life that they have to try to make others miserable.

For me, I try to steer clear of these super nasty, angry people. I don’t need them in my business or my life.

And yes, this was a rant. I am airing my thoughts here as opposed to writing a nasty response to these people. Nothing will come of it but further frustration and insanity.

The customer is not always right. Oh, sorry, these people NEVER were our clients!

Being that I help people with their divorce in California every day, I do come across many clients who started their divorce on their own and then later call me to fix and finalize their divorce paperwork.

One of the common things I see is that people are filing the FL-150 income and expense declaration with the court when they don’t have to.

Here are the rules. Yes, you need to prepare an income and expense declaration, form FL-150, however you only have to file the FL-150 in a handful of situations. So this article will address when you need to file the income and expense declaration form FL-150 and when you don’t.

In addition, I will tell you how to avoid having to file the income and expense declaration if you want to avoid having to do so. (Read more below the video)

So when do you have to file the income and expense declaration form FL-150?

1. When there are minor children involved (unless uncontested case)
2. When a Response is filed.
3. When you have a true default case.

But what if you don’t want to file an income and expense declaration with the court because you don’t want your financials to be part of your divorce case and subject to being part of public record.

The reason I wrote this article and created the above video is because I get asked all the time if divorce records are public record. And the answer is yes. This is why we provide such little information (only what is required by the court) when it comes to drafting our divorce settlement agreements.

But when the income and expense form is required to be filed, such as when there are children involved, the question is how can you avoid having to file the FL-150?

The answer is quite simple and I already gave the answer away in the the list above.

If you are going through divorce in California and have children, you will have to file an income and expense declaration with the court. But, you only have to file the FL-150 if your case is what we call a default with agreement or true default.

If your California divorce case is considered an uncontested divorce (defined as the Petitioner filing the petition and the Respondent filing a Response) you do not have to file the income and expense declaration with the court.

So for purposes of this article, i was asked by a client how to avoid having to file the FL-150 income and expense declaration with the court. The answer was, “File a Response and you don’t have to file the FL-150 with the court”.

So if you are concerned about putting out all your personal information out there for the world to potentially find, one way to avoid filing the FL-150 is simply to have the Respondent file a Response.

California Divorce Courts Closed 3/31/2017 For Cesar Chavez Day

The Courts close every Cesar Chavez holiday, but people forget it is a holiday that the courts are closed on. It is no fun to take the day off of work to go to court and find out they are closed.

So just a quick note to say that the courts are closed tomorrow, Friday March 31, 2017 for Cesar Chavez Day.

Do California Divorce Papers Need To Be Notarized?

When it comes to having your California divorce papers notarized, the rules have changed a few times and for now it just makes sense to have your divorce papers notarized in every circumstance. Let me explain.

In the past, if you had an uncontested divorce case in California, where one party files the Petitioner and the other party files a Response, and you end up signing a written agreement, then you did not have to have your California divorce judgment notarized. (see more below the video)

California Divorce Judgment Rejection Issues Ep. 2

In episode 2 where I review a clients California Divorce judgment rejection letter and the issues and fixes, we discuss issues with the following documents.

FL-130, FL-141, FL-180, FL-170, FL-190

Most people trying to do their own divorce in California will get at least one rejection letter when they submit their judgment to the court for approval. Many people try to do their own California Divorce and when they get stuck they call me for assistance and in this video I go over the reject sheet to talk about the issues.