Can I Mail The Divorce Declaration Of Disclosure? Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I had another great question about divorce come through our “ask Tim a question” on our blog and, as I always do will answer by writing an article about it. Why? Because is one person has this question, so do others.

This question was in regards to who can serve the Declaration of Disclosure. This is referring to the FL-140 which essentially is the cover sheet advising the other party that you are serving them with the income and expense declaration and schedule of assets and debts.

I have talked a lot about who can serve what during divorce and which has to be personally served and which forms can be mailed. But i don't think I have ever answered this specific question.

So here is the question. Can you as one of the parties serve your own declaration of disclosure? As this person says, there is nothing on the form that says otherwise nor is their even a place for anyone to say who served it.

In regards to the Declaration of Disclosure, you can mail serve this yourself. You do not have to have someone else do this for you and you do not have to do it personally, but you can if you want. You can either mail this to your spouse or hand it to them.

But don't forget this one critical step that I find self represented clients make. Don't forget to file the FL-141 with the court. This is the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure. This form needs to be filed with the court.

Here is the video on how to file the FL-141.

Make sure you check the appropriate boxes on the FL-141. For instance, if you are the Petitioner you will mark the box indicating that and that you are serving your forms on the other party either by mail or in person. Don't forget to put the date you served them or the form will be rejected. (everyone misses this) Then simply date and sign your form and file it with the court.

Keep this filed copy handy because you will have to re-submit it to the court when you file your judgment.

I hope this has been helpful. I have also recorded a video on how to complete this form. Now you will know how to serve your declaration of disclosure and how to file the appropriate documents with the court.

 

How To Get Your Spouse To Pay Your Attorney Fees – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Lately i have been coming across several clients who truly need to hire an attorney due to the nature of their divorce, but are unable to hire one due to lack of money.

In most cases, it has been because of lack of access to money, either because the spouse was a stay at home mom and never had access to the main accounts or because they were cut off when their spouse closed the account so they would not have any money.

So what are you to do when this happens? Sadly, divorce attorneys will not take your case if you don't have any money to retain them. Trust me, I have tried to find an attorney that would do this. They are non-existent.

What you need to do in cases like this is to ask the court to make an order that your spouse pay some of your attorneys fees to you have access to representation. There is a law that says both parties should have equal access to representation. The courts have even said that they are willing to make awards for attorney fees to clients that need them.

The problem is that how to you get a hearing for attorney fees if you can't get an attorney until you have the money?

Here is what I have done for the last couple of clients who have been in this situation. The goal is to file for divorce and complete the necessary request for order motion for attorney fees so we can get a court date set for a hearing.

We will literally prepare all the documents to get you one your way toward a court date where you can ask the judge to make an order that your spouse pay some or all of your attorney fees.

Once you have had your hearing with the judge and they have awarded attorney fees, you can then go out and hire an attorney. The nice thing about working with us is that you will not have spent a bunch on money on an attorney up to this point and no you can move on from where we left off.

If you find yourself in this position, please feel free to give us a call so we can discuss helping you obtain attorney fees so you can hire an attorney for your divorce.

 

Warning To Santa Clarita Divorce Clients Regarding San Fernando Court Legal Services

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I wanted to issue this warning of types. It is come to my attention through my existing clients, that there is a legal services company standing outside the San Fernando Courthouse offering legal services.

Apparently their game is to approach you and ask if you are representing yourself in your divorce. What they are attempting to do is identify folks who are going to the self help center in an attempt to lure them to their local legal services offices.

I guess this works as a business plan to get new clients, but what has happened is that it seems they will look at your paperwork and say that there is something wrong with it. They are doing a quick review of your divorce paperwork and then pointing out things that are wrong.

Where this has caused a problem is with my clients who i send down there for hearings or to see the facilitator or some other such function.

I received a few calls from my clients who said they were advised by someone who identified themselves as a paralegal and offered to review their paperwork. They quickly pointed out supposed issues with the paperwork that I had completed.

My clients called me to make sure the paperwork was correct. After telling them that their paperwork was, in fact correct, they were able to finish their business at the courthouse.

I don't have an issue with a legal services poaching customers outside the court, but i do have an issue with someone telling people that their paperwork is incorrect when it isn't.

If you are my client, please simply walk past these folks who are doing nothing more than hunting for business dressed up as “free help” from some random stranger standing on the street.

At first I thought it was a pretty good idea to have folks standing out and asking people if they needed help. But after a few moments i realized that is just does not provide the professional image we wish to portray to our clients.

People find us by looking for answers to divorce which we have answered in our over 700 articles on divorce and over 120 videos about divorce in Santa Clarita.

 

Both Filed For Divorce – What To Do – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

It does not happen very often, but often enough to write an article about. What do you do if both husband and wife file for divorce. Meaning, you both went down and filed a petition for divorce.

The times I have seen this happen have been when both parties are upset and they run out and hire an attorney and both of them are in a rush to file for divorce first.

Many issues can arise when two petitions are filed and we will discuss what to watch out for and how to correct it.

Recently a client called me with this exact problem. They both had filed for divorce over a year ago and two petitions were filed and thus, two cases were assigned for the same divorce proceeding.

The first problem comes down to one of the parties being served or filing a response on one of the cases. As happened here, because both parties filed a petition, neither party had ever been served in the other case and nobody had responded to the other case.

Essentially, the divorce had never started, despite over a year having gone by.

So how do you fix this. Well, the first thing they needed to do is get one of the parties served so they could start the clock on the 6 month cooling off period. Generally, you could just pick the case that was filed first. But in this case, many documents were filed under the later filed case, so we decided to use that case instead.

So now that the service is complete, you will need to draft a stipulation to combined the cases and have one of the Petitions to be treated as the Response. Of course, you could always just file a Response, but you would have to pay the filing fee again.

The stipulation would simply request that the petition in one case be treated as the Response. It is not entirely difficult, but both parties must sign and submit for the courts signature.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

 

Do You Have Better Chance At Divorce Hearing With Attorney Present | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I know this is a very open ended question, so let me clarify a bit what I am talking about.  I had a client call me who said he contacted an attorney because he needed to terminate spousal support.

His child had turned 18 and per the terms of the divorce judgment, he no longer had to pay child support.  In many cases, as with his, before the employer would stop taking the spousal support payments out of his check, they wanted an order from the court that said so.

Because an order was made when child support was ordered, you will need an order to terminate child support as well.

In order to do this you need to file a motion with the court. This would be a Request For Order and you will probably want to go in Ex-Parte so you can get the order signed faster.

If you want more information about how to terminate child support, please give us a call.  But for purposes of this article I want to discuss something intersting this client was told by an attorney.

This attorney essetially told him that he would have a better chance getting the child custody order signed if he had an attorney present. The reason he gave was that he (the attorney) would show up in court and testify that they gave proper Ex-Parte notice.  That is that they called the other party and let them know they would be going to court to request the termination of child support.

I thought that was an intersting sales pitch.  A Request For Order is simply a form you fill out and file with the court to ask for a hearing.  Giving Ex-Parte notice is simply a procedural process.  It requires you call the otherp party, generally 24 hours in advance, and let them know you are going to court.  This gives them a chance to appear.

What the attorney was trying to say is that without an attorney present, the judge may not hear the case because there would be nobody to testify that the Ex-Parte notice was given and there would be a chance the court would not hear the motion.

When you are representing yourself, In Pro Per, you do not have to hire an attorney simpy to give Ex-Parte notice and show up in court.  This attoreny was going to charge him $1,500 to fill out a single form and show up to court.

It is not necessary to hire an attorney for these types of divorce motions.  For an attorney to use the sales pitch that he will testify that Ex-Parte notice was properly given is hardly a reason to use an attorney for thi

We Make Divorce Understandable – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The process of divorce is complex and has many moving parts. Even with all the information out there on the internet about divorce, it is still confusing to most. Even the Los Angeles Superior Court's websites attempt to explain the process of divorce, but even they have trouble making it clear.

Day in and day out we speak to clients who are trying to understand the divorce process. They are trying to wrap their head around how everything comes together. They have spent time on various websites and talking to friends who have been divorced, but still have lots of questions.

If you follow our blogs, you know that we write, talk and make videos about everything we can think about in regards to divorce. We have made the process of divorce just little more understandable.

But that can only take you so far. You see, the divorce process can change or be slightly different in each case. There is not a one size fits all process for divorce. There are lots of “what if's” that can drastically change the direction you need to take when going through your divorce.

That is what makes our divorce document preparation company so good. It is not just that we prepare, file and serve all your divorce documents, but the information we give you about how the divorce process works. When you work with us, you have someone in your corner, every step of the way, helping you understand the divorce process and answering all your “what if” type questions.

The information we give you, you just can't get out of a self help book. The information just is not specific enough to your exact situation.

People who call us or visit our office often say this. They say they have talked to an attorney and left their office more confused than when they walked in. When they leave our office, they say we made the divorce process understandable and took the confusion of the process.

We are licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce. We are headquartered in Santa Clarita and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Sole And Community Property Must Be Disposed Of In Divorce Judgment | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This article addresses the the issue of your divorce judgment being rejected with the box marked, “All sole and community property listed in the Petition must be disposed of in the Judgment”

We will discuss how to fix your divorce judgment if it has been rejected for the this reason.  We have also completed a video on how to fix your divorce judgment is it was rejected because you did all your sole and community property that was listed on the Petition was not disposed of in the divorce judgment.

When you file your divorce Petition in California there are two areas that ask you to list your property.  The first asks you to list your separate property and the second area asks you to list your community property.  You can either list the property on the divorce Petition or use one of the allowed attachments or supplement with a property declaration where you can list all your property.

Regardless how you go about listing your property, you need to make sure that you dispose of all the property in the final divorce judgment.

The issues is this.  If you list property, whether it be an asset or debt, you are telling the court that this asset or debt exists.  If you don’t tell the court who is getting the property, then this property is just left sitting there with no owner.  If the judge were to sign this judgment, it would effectively leave this asset or debt not being assigned to either the Petitioner or Respondent.

Now this may seem like a small technicality if, say for instance, the asset was small such as a bank account with $10 in it.  But what if your forgot to assign a bank account with $10,000 in it?  Now, maybe you have an agreement with your spouse regarding who is going to keep it, but if it is not listed on the judgment when the judge signs, then technically the asset or debt does not below to anybody.

To correct this issue, all you need to do is make sure all sole and community property you listed on your divorce Petition is listed on the judgment.  If you completed a marital settlement agreement, you would simply add this to the list for whom it is going to.  If you are using the judgment attachments, you would add the property to the correct property attachment indicating who is getting the asset or debt.

We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the Los Angeles Area courts.  We specialize in helping people get through the divorce process.  Give us a call for more information.

Divorce Service With A Servants Heart – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, I have to admit that i stole the line, “With a servants heart”. But even though I stole it, does not mean it isn't true.

I am sitting here at the Oil Stop in Valencia, CA and writing the blog on my Ipad while sitting in my car. I come to Oil Stop because I enjoy the professional service and attentiveness I receive.

Today, i just happened to be sitting in the bay furthest to the left and there was a computer monitor that continuously showed the same commercial about Oil Stop and had employees saying throughout “with a servants heart”.

I find it hard to explain the type and level of service you receive with our divorce document preparation service. But when i heard those words, I thought it definitely was how i viewed the level of service we provide.

I can tell you that we provide a great service, a valuable service and will provide excellent customer service. But those words are so worn out and really don't mean much anymore.

What i wanted to impart in this article is we are here to serve your needs and assist you with getting you through your divorce or other family law related matter.

As I have been here writing I have lost track of the fact that I automatically say “no” to everything they try to sell me here at Oil Stop and think I bought all the extras today. I needed it and was happy to have a professional service take care of these needs, even if i had to pay slightly more than if i went someplace else.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce. We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts in Los Angeles Countu.

Please feel free to give us a call about any questions you may have about divorce. We promise to provide our divorce service with a servants heart

California Divorce Probability Calculator | What’s Your Chances Of Getting Divorced?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I am a regular Google Plus guy and spend time on this particular social media platform to communicate and connect with other people and share ideas and information.

Today I was searching to see if anybody had written any interesting articles about divorce in the last 24 hours or so.  So I was doing a hashtag search for #divorce and came upon a very interesting article written by a Pittsburgh Divorce Attorney named Lisa Marie Vari.

The article was interesting for two reasons.  First, because it mentioned “Divorce Insurance”.  I had never heard of that so wanted to learn more.  You can read the entire article about divorce insurance here.  But I was more interested in the discussion about a Divorce Probability Calculator.

So I went to check out this divorce probability calculator to see what it was all about.  This divorce calculator is not just for California.   This was just my little local search tactic.

So here is what I learned about the divorce probability calculator.  Their website says the formula was based on information gathered in face-to-face interviews with 10,847 women ages 15-44 in 1995 and 12,571 men and women aged 15-44 in 2002 and was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Disease Control and Prevention.

The calculator says they are correct with only a 13% margin of error.

I thought it would be interesting to take the test and see what kind of questions they were asking.  There were approximately 20 questions.  The initial questions had to do with if you a man or woman, age, race, if you have been married before, education level, employment status and income level, etc.  Essentially establishing a base.  Then the questions asked if you drink alcohol, have arguments with your wife, had children before marriage or shortly after getting married, if your parents were divorced, history of mental illness and so on.

So I went all the way through the divorce probability calculator and it gives you a score.  But the only way to know what your score means is to enter your email address.

As you go through the divorce probability calculator, you can see, based on the questions asked, who the more likely candidates for divorce are.  If anything, it was interesting.  Not sure what the plan is of the company for asking for your email address though.  Could be a lead generation source for them i suppose.  Why else would folks be on the site?

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts of Los Angeles and California.

We Have Answers To Your Divorce Questions – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

There is a lot to know about divorce and the divorce process in Santa Clarita. The first thing people start doing when considering a divorce is to get online and start looking for answers. Well, we have the answers to your divorce questions.

When we got into this business, we wanted to do things different. Instead of holding on to the information and expertise we have obtained about divorce and the divorce process, we thought we would share the information we learn through our blogs, video and podcasts.

Because we have been discussing what we learn about divorce in Santa Clarita everyday, there is a very good chance that if you live in Santa Clarita and are looking for answers to your divorce questions, you will have landed on one of our blogs. And we are glad you have.

If you are going to represent yourself in your own divorce and forego hiring an attorney, you need to be fully informed of how divorce works and what your options are in getting through it. What will be the challenges, how much will it cost and how long will it take are just a few examples.

What you will learn is getting an answer to one question will certainly lead you to another one. Many people spend a considerable amount of time on our blogs, reading articles and watching youtube videos. We love that people are learning about divorce by reading the stories we share about the process, procedure and issues that can come up during a divorce.

We even have a “ask us a question” on our blog that allows folks to simply type in a question they have. It asks you to leave your email so we can respond. Generally what we do is record a video email and send a personalized video to your inbox. We feel this is a personal touch and makes it easier to give a detailed answer to the question.

As a licensed and bonded legal document preparation company that specializes in divorce, our answers to your divorce questions revolve around everything except giving legal advice. We discuss procedure, how to fill out divorce forms, courts processes and just about anything else we can think of.

If you have a question about divorce, please let us know. Give us a call or shoot us an email. We would be happy to answer your divorce question.