Stipulating (Agreeing) Vs. Litigating California Divorce Matters

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The word stipulate means “to agree” to something.  I get lots of calls where people want to modify, change, or create new orders related to their divorce both during the divorce proceeding or years after their divorce has been finalized.

There is a misconception that in order to have these orders changed that you have to go to court and see the judge.  This is not true and would be best explained with an example.

I had a guy call this week that said he wanted to file a motion to go to court so he could reduce his child support.  His income had gone down, while his former spouse’s had gone up.  His change in circumstances warranted making a change to the child support.

He was calling us because he had contacted an attorney who wanted $4,500 to file the motion and represent him for this action.  When he spoke with me, the first thing I asked him is if his spouse would agree to make the changes without having to go to court.

I told him that in cases where the numbers don’t lie, such as in this case using a dissomaster calculation (what the court’s use to calculate support) it is worth a shot to contact his former spouse and just explain it to her cordially to see if they can come to an agreement without having to go to court.

I told him to simply state the facts.  That his income has gone down and hers has gone up and per a new calculation the child support should be changed.

He then asked me why the attorney he spoke to would not have mentioned this tactic.  My answer was that there is no money to be made by parties that are in agreement.  They would rather suggest a course of action that drives in the most revenue for their law firm, essentially doing what is best for them and not their clients.

Make sure to grab your copy of my book while your at it. There is a lot of great information and you will learn a lot about divorce.

Divorce Paralegal Company Forges Client Fee Waiver

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I thought I have seen it all when it comes to fraud being committed by paralegal companies, but this one takes the cake. Here is what happened…

I get a lot of calls where someone has hired a different divorce paralegal company (their first mistake, lol) and the company they hired either didn’t finish the job, took the money and ran or just didn’t know what they were doing.

In this case, I got a call from a guy who had been referred to another company by a co-worker. He came in because the company he used would not return his calls after more than a year had gone by. When he came in to my office, I could tell they had no idea what they were doing. Just about every document they had completed was done wrong. In fact, I have seen people trying to do their own divorce case do better than them.

They had such a bad job that we had to completely start over. So I took care of his entire case right there on the spot.

Then he calls the co-worker that had referred him to this company and tells her what happened. So she then calls and comes in a few days later. We discover the same problems with her paperwork and have to start her divorce case totally from scratch.

As I am looking at the online case summary of the documents that were filed I noticed that a fee waiver had been filed. I found this odd because she earns over $100,000 per year. I asked her about the fee waiver and she had no idea what I was talking about.

So I had to tell her that the company she had used to help her with her divorce filed a fee waiver to ask the court to waive the court fees. This is only done when you are low income or unemployed which is not the case for her. This then got me thinking. So I looked at the case summary of her co-worker and a fee waiver was also filed on his behalf as well.

She was shocked to learn that this paralegal company had forged the fee waiver. Why would they do this? Because instead of paying the court fee, which is currently $435 with the money they were paid, they kept the money and forged a fee waiver to put more money in their pocket.

To forge a fee waiver one would have to make up an expense sheet and show income, to include pay stubs to verify the income. This means that they would have had to doctor up fake pay stubs as well.

The point of the story is that there are criminals in every industry. Now, I don’t even consider these companies in my industry because they should not even be running a business. They are unlicensed, unregistered paralegal companies who are not allowed to be in business in the first place.

I have written a letter to the Court Clerks Supervisor to bring this to their attention. I don’t know if there is anything that can be done about it or if they will even care, but I would imagine that the courts would care if there is a company systematically forging fee waivers and essentially stealing from the courts.

Make sure to do your due diligence before hiring a paralegal company for your divorce. Make sure they are registered as Legal Document Assistants who are the only people who can handle your divorce in California.

Get A Free Book For A Limited Time

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

For a limited time I am giving away a free copy of my book to anyone that subscribes. The whole idea behind writing the book in the first place was to get this information into as many hands as possible to share the knowledge I have about divorce and my personal opinion of what the divorce process should look like.

The book is called, “Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney – One Paralegal’s Take On Divorce, Responsibility and Compromise”. The idea behind the book was to share a better way of going through the divorce process by using services such as ours and even by using mediation. My hope is that you will learn that there are better ways to get divorced than having to hire a divorce attorney.

Many people don’t even know that services like mine exist to help them with their divorce. In fact, I was just doing a Google search and typed the words “divorce” and Google had already automatically placed the word “attorney” as the next word it thought I would be selecting. So Google does not help when you are looking for a different type of service which means you have to already know about a service like ours.

I did not write the book to make money from royalties, although that is happening. I make enough to pay for a Coffee each day and would rather give that up and provide a downloadable copy of the book for free as an added value to my clients and potential clients.

So make sure to sign up for your free copy of my book. There is a lot of good information in there and I discuss several topics related to divorce. Again, I think you will enjoy the book whether you are thinking about divorce or are in the middle of your divorce.

So grab your free copy.

Valencia Divorce & Terminating Spousal Support From Long Term Marriage? You Will Need This Waiver For Your Divorce Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are going through a divorce in Valencia, California and have a long term marriage,(over 10 years) and want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support in your divorce case, you are going to have to have include the spousal support waiver language for marriages over 10 years in length. (more below video)

 

You see, In California divorce, the law states that the court’s will maintain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely in marriages of long duration which is considered over 10 years. This does not mean that there has to be a spousal support order, it just means the court has the ability to make an award for spousal support should one of the spouses ask for spousal support in the future.

But many spouses going through divorce in Valencia still want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction, even though this is not what the courts would normally do.

If you want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support, and both spouses agree, you can include specific spousal support waiver language that has to be part of your divorce agreement in order for the court’s to terminate the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support.

If you plan on asking the court to terminate the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support I recommend that both spouses have their signature notarized on the divorce judgment. While it is not normally necessary to have both signatures notarized (sometimes none, sometimes just one) we recommend it because we have seen the courts request a hearing to speak to the spouses to make sure they understand what they are agreeing to. The judges also started rejecting the divorce judgments in some cases and asked the spouses to have their signatures notarized.

If you are going through a divorce in Valencia or anywhere in California, we can help you with your divorce, including adding the necessary waiver language to have not only the spousal support set at zero but to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issues of spousal support forever so you don’t ever have to worry about either spouse coming back at a later time and asking for spousal support.

Why I Went Cold Turkey On Google Adwords

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

To turn off advertising is like trying to stop drinking alcohol. I know, a weird comparison, but it is true.

Since 2012 I have used Google Adwords to promote my divorce paralegal business in Santa Clarita.  While I write 1000’s of articles, record 100’s of videos and podcasts and do “all things marketing” I just felt that I needed to pay for local Google Adwords.

If you are not familiar with Adwords as a consumer, you are not alone. Most people don’t know the difference between a paid ad and a local search result or (SERP) Search Engine Results Page).

But I can tell the difference between someone who has found us by a paid Google search or by our “organic search” which is comprised of our blog, videos and podcast.

You see, when you use Google adwords, you can pay to play.  You can say, “show my business in this area when people search for these terms”.  But this game can be very expensive.  This is especially true when you are playing in the “divorce”. “Lawyer”, or “attorney” field.

Divorce attorneys, divorce lawyers and just the word divorce are highly competitive words and phrases. This means that as an advertiser you are going to pay more money for a highly competitive phrase, especially if you want to appear at the top of the search results when someone searches for a word you want to show up for.

To make a long story, short. To be in one of the top 3 results of a Google search for a phrase such as “Valencia Divorce” you are going to pay about $10.00 for appear there if someone clicks on that add.

The thing is, is that most people don’t know the difference between a paid add and an organic listing in the search they are conducting.

For the last 3 plus years, on top of all the organic search results I get from the blogs, videos and podcasts, I also pay about $30,000 per year in Google Adwords so I can show up at the top of the search.

My wife recently asked me what type of return I think I get from the paid search.  And I could not answer her with any type of certainty.

But I could tell you this.  We get a lot of phone calls.  And I can tell you that I can tell the difference between someone who found us through a paid search result and someone who found us through one of the articles, posts, videos or podcasts I have done.

Here is the difference between someone who has found us through paid search versus organic search.

Paid Search Inquiry:  What the caller asks on the phone:

  1.  Hi, I saw your business on google and wanted to know how much it is to get divorced?
  2. I was thinking of getting divorced, what does your business do?
  3. How does the divorce process work?
  4. How long does divorce take?

The list goes on and on, but to call me with questions about divorce that you can find on the internet shows me that you are not serious.  You can literally find all the answers to these questions on my blog.  So if someone actually spent a few minuets on our divorce661 website, they would find the answers to these FAQ’s on our blog, videos and podcast.

Organic Search Inquiry: This means that someone was looking for information about divorce and I happened to write an article or record a video or podcast and answered their questions on that medium.

  1. Hi, I read and article about “blank divorce” and then I watched a few of your divorce videos and listened to a few of your audio podcasts.  I think you are the person I want to help me with my divorce, and was thinking of doing the $899 package because I have property, but no kids.  I just had a few questions and then I think I am ready to move forward with your company to help me with my divorce.

Yeah, I think the second type of client is the one I want to deal with.  They have already done their due diligence.  They have already done their research about divorce. They have already looked us up on other social media resources and checked us out on review websites and made the decision that they wanted to work with us.

That is the benefit of organic search.

This is why I went cold turkey on shutting down Google Adwords.  Yes, I am afraid that we won’t get the call volume that we have gotten over the years, but we also won’t get the low quality calls about divorce that we have received either.

Let’s see how things go without the paid search.

 

Moved From Orange County To Los Angeles : Where To File Your Divorce Case

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce or about to start your divorce and you move, especially move to different county, you are going to have to decide where you want to file your divorce case. Keep in mind that there are ruled of where you can file as discussed below.

We had new clients that fell into this situation. They lived in Orange County where they were selling their home and in the meantime, both spouses moved to Los Angeles County. The problem the occurs here is that on the divorce Petition form FL-100, it states that at least one of the spouses in the divorce has to have lived in the State of California for at least 6 months and lives in the County they are filing for divorce in at least 3 months immediately prior to filing for divorce in that County.

So the question became where do we file their divorce case? In Los Angeles or Orange County? Here is what was decided and why. They had lived in Orange County for some time and had their primary residence there. Even though they have moved out of Orange County recently, they had most recently lived in Orange County for the 3 months prior to filing for divorce. Another problem that there was is that it would be difficult to file for divorce in Orange County using Los Angeles County addresses. The courts would call that into question.

So what we did is had them use their current address in Orange County so we could file the case in Orange County now. The other thing we could have done is wait the 3 months to file their divorce case in Los Angeles County. But as you can probably guess, waiting was not something that they wanted to consider. So we are filing their divorce case in Orange County.

I wanted to write and article and shoot a quick video on this because many folks find themselves moving either prior to starting their divorce or after filing their divorce. If you move out after filing for divorce, that does not change anything with the courts. Just make sure to complete a change of address with the court.

Where you live is only a concern when move prior to filing for divorce.

Just remember. Per the divorce Petition, you must live in California for 6 months and in the County for 3 months prior to filing for divorce in that county.

Divorce Mediation Interview With John Morrison of Morrison Mediation

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I conducted a comprehensive interview with John Morrison of Morrison Mediation where we discussed divorce mediation. We talked about just about anything you would need to know when going through a divorce in California and whether using a divorce mediator would be useful or appropriate.

Below is the full 35 minute interview, however, I will be breaking the interview down into smaller bit-size bits as well so you can quickly find the answers you are looking for related to divorce mediation in California.

I will make sure to link to all of the individual parts of the interview so you can quickly listen to the portion of the interview about divorce mediation that interests you.

John Morrison and I talked about some really interesting topics related to divorce mediation in California. We talked about when you might want to use a divorce mediator, to if it is even appropriate in your case. We talk about how to choose a divorce mediator and why if you have complex financial issues you may want to consider using a mediator who is learned in complex financial issues.

John Morrison is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst. Now I have spoke and interviewed many divorce mediators, but never spoke to someone that held this designation and it was very interesting to learn about this specialty.

You can learn more about John Morrison at MorrisonMediation.Com

Valencia Divorce : What Is A Memorandum Of Understanding?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I just finished an article talking about divorce mediation and was discussing the use of something known as a Memorandum of Understanding, also known as a MOU.

If you are using a divorce mediator, especially a divorce mediator who is not an attorney, what you will come out of mediation with is a Memorandum of Understanding. It is just a fancy word for a document that contains your agreements as discussed through mediation.

A Memorandum of Understanding is not a settlement agreement, however. It cannot be used as part of your divorce judgment or turned into the court. The Memorandum of Understanding served only to document the agreements as discussed with your mediator.

The agreements in the Memorandum of Understanding then need to drafted in the divorce judgment documents. The reason the Memorandum of Understanding cannot be used as part of the judgment or Marital Settlement Agreement is because it lacks the sufficient legalese. That is why we take a divorce mediators MOU and enter the agreements into the judgment.

Some of the language can remain, but regarding certain issues, there is mandatory legalese that is required to be part of the divorce judgment, but not part of the MOU.

For instance, as part of your Marital Settlement Agreement, you most likely have a section to discuss the children and custody and visitation and things like that. That is fine, however the MOU does does not have the legalese that the child custody orders has which is one of the orders in the overall divorce judgment package.

So if you are using divorce mediation to work towards your agreements (which is great by the way) then you will still need a divorce paralegal firm (legal document assistant firm) to prepare your court forms and judgment so your divorce can be finalized with the court.

Are You A Divorce Mediator? Use Divorce661 For Your Divorce Processing

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are you a divorce mediator and like doing mediation but not necessarily doing the procedural divorce paperwork? We’ll we have a solution for you. While not our primary source of business, we have been sought out by numerous divorce mediators to assist with the divorce document preparation and handle the divorce court procedural steps once mediation is completed.

We are very flexible when working with divorce mediators and their clients and there are different ways you can utilize us to keep your divorce mediation in your wheel house and make good recommendations when sending your clients out to have their divorce paperwork processed.

Here are few ways for divorce mediators to use our service.

Use us as an extension of your business – You can continue to be the contact point for your clients and use us to prepare, file and handle all the procedural steps. All communication between you can your clients will remain and we will be out of the picture and completely behind the scenes. We will coordinate anything we need through you which can then be obtain by you and provided to us.

Use us as a referral partner – When I speak to mediators, I give them the options in how they want to use our service. I think at first thought, the divorce mediators first want to be the contact point for communication with their client. But it usually only takes one time working with us to realize that we are professionals and will leave a good impression with your client as an extension of your service.

Divorce mediators will usually just have us deal with their client directly and let them know they are working with a 3rd party company to have the divorce process handled.

We are easy to work with – We handle all the paperwork so you don’t have to. We will file the Petition, handle the disclosures and prepare and file the judgment once all signatures are completed. We will deal directly with the court and save you time so you can spend more of it on mediation.

We save your clients money – Because we have worked with the courts and understand the process, we can save your divorce mediation clients money. Because they are in agreement, we can file a hybrid divorce judgment. This is just fancy speak for saying we will not have the respondent file a response so save on the $435 response fee. We will still prepare a stipulated judgment.

Just provide us your MOU, Marital Settlement Agreement or Judgment – We know there are different types of divorce mediators. Some are attorney mediators who draft Marital Settlement Agreements and some that are non-attorney mediators who draft Memorandum of Understandings. All we ask you to do is to provide your MOU and we will incorporate your clients agreements into the divorce judgment forms.

If you want more information about how we can help you, please just give us a call. We would be happy to discuss a working relationship with you and how we can serve you and your clients.

Stipulations Taking Long Time To Get Judge To Sign

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I have written plenty of articles on how to draft a stipulations and what stipulations are used for in the divorce process, but not so much about how long the stipulations take to get back from court.

Here is the deal. When we draft a stipulation and once it has been filed with the court, it can take several months to get the judge to sign it. It is not because they are figuring out if they are going to approve it or not, rather it is just sitting there in a huge pile of paperwork waiting to be approved.

When we take the stipulations down to the court via messenger, they are given to the file clerk, who receives the payment which is $20 to receive the judge’s signature and then the stipulations are eventually taken to the courtroom where you case is being processed. This is the situation whether your case is completed already or you are in them middle of the case.

So we really have no control over how long it will take to receive a stipulation back from the court. We have even had stipulations lost by the court which is always fun because we have to have the parties sign the stipulation again.

The court’s have even lost full judgments, but don’t get me started on that.

We do quite a bit of stipulations. They are good to draft up agreements the parties have or to make changes or modifications to terms in the divorce judgment or even to modify a previously written stipulation.

Here are some other articles I have written about divorce stipulations

Proof Of Income Required With Spousal Support Stipulations

Changes with Child Support Stipulations

Spousal Support Stipulations Need Specific Start Date

How To Establish Spousal Support Stipulation

In the last week or so we drafted several stipulations. One was a stipulation for child support and spousal support. We are working with clients who needed more time on how to decide the best way to divide up their property and with issues of child custody they still wanted to discus. But they were agreed upon on the amount of child support and spousal support so we went ahead and drafted the stipulations for child support and spousal support.

What we will do when they have the remainder of there agreements in is just attache the stipulation regarding child support and spousal support to the final judgment in their divorce case.

It is sometimes a good idea to have your agreements drafted in a stipulation while your are going through the divorce process so documents the agreements you have if you feel it is going to take a long time to decide everything in your divorce case.

Most our clients do the entire judgment at one time, but for these folks, one of the spouses needed to move out and wanted some reassurance that the child support and spousal support order was in place prior to moving out and is why we drafted the stipulation for child support and spousal support in this case. Additionally, the stipulation for child support and spousal support can be used as evidence of income if you are trying to rent a home or apartment.