Santa Clarita Divorce Blog

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce Blog

We have become the go to source for information about divorce in Santa Clarita. We publish information about divorce in Santa Clarita everyday in an attempt to help folks understand how to get divorced and how the divorce process works in California.

We have been one of the first companies to freely provide information about divorce in an effort to make clear the divorce process in Santa Clarita so folks are not so reliant upon having to hire attorneys when they are not necessary in most cases.

Our Santa Clarita divorce blog provide at least daily updates regarding divorce, the divorce process and helpful tips. In addition, we have numerous divorce videos and audio podcasts where we talk about divorce and information that is helpful to people who are trying to figure out what to do when they are thinking of filing for divorce.

We even go as far as having a form on our website that allows you to ask a question. We routinely get multiple questions per day for people who are looking for answers to their questions about divorce related to their specific situation.

In fact, whenever we get a question over the phone or via email, we try to connect with people by providing the answer to their question via video and on our blog.

Many people find out about our divorce paralegal service in Santa Clarita by searching online for answers to their divorce questions. Because we have answered many of these questions, our blog routinely shows up and helps them to understand divorce and perhaps even decide to use our divorce service.

Our Santa Clarita divorce blog is the only source of real information about divorce. If you have any questions about divorce we welcome your calls and emails.

Are You Looking For A Full Service Divorce Firm In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are You Looking For A Full Service Divorce Firm In Santa Clarita

If you are looking for do it yourself type company to prepare your divorce documents, we are not it.

This is because we are a full service divorce company that will take care of everything that has to do with your divorce.

We take care of preparing all the divorce documents personally. Nothing is left up to you to prepare and we don’t ask you to fill out some questionnaire. Your divorce documents will be professionally prepared, exactly as if you were in a law firm (except for the cost!)

We will file all the documents with the court. There are many steps to getting divorced and we will file all the necessary documents along the way.

We were recently asked by a client if our service included postage when we mailed out documents to our clients. She said she would be happy to pay for postage if our costs did not account for that.

I thought it was funny, and so wrote her a funny email saying that she has hired a full service company and that we take care of everything. And this even includes the postage of mailing documents back and forth between our clients and the courts. And it’s a good thing too, because we mail a lot of documents on a daily basis and are certainly helping keep the post office from declaring bankruptcy.

So if you want to work with a great company that will take care of everything involving your divorce, make sure to give us a call.

If you are looking for some inferior company who is going to nickel and dime your are make you do most of the work, we are not that company.

Why Summary Dissolution Is Not Right For You | California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Why Summary Dissolution Is Not Right For You | California Divorce

Have you heard of a Summary Divorce?  It is often touted as an easy way to get divorced if you qualify.   It is also referred to as a cheaper way of getting divorced.  Neither of these statements are true.

We have covered what the qualifications are to using a summary divorce in other articles.  We are not going to cover those again here.  What we are going to do is discuss why using a summary dissolution is not right for you, even if you qualify.

First, let’s talk about the paperwork.  The divorce forms in a summary dissolution are not any easier for you if you are not familiar with how divorce works in the first place.  So if you are thinking about completing your own divorce, it is going to be just as confusing and difficult either way.

The next myth is that the summary dissolution process is less expensive.  In fact, the summary divorce is actually twice as expensive!  How is this, you say?  If you look at a normal divorce petition, there is only one Petitioner.   When the Petitioner files for divorce, he or she will pay the filing fee.  The filing fee in LA County is $435 and most of California follows suit or is higher.

The summary dissolution is actually called, “Joint Petition For Summary Dissolution”.  Joint as in both of you are Petitioner’s.  Joint as in both of you are going to pay a filing fee!

Yes, you heard that right.  If you file for summary dissolution, both you and your spouse have to pay a filing fee.  That just doubled your costs.

With a regular default case or hybrid style divorce, you are going to pay only one filing fee.  That is because in a hybrid or default, the other party does not file a response.

Don’t fall prey to being convinced to  use a summary dissolution.  I got a call yesterday from a client who stated he wanted to file a summary dissolution and had read up on it.  He had no idea it was going to cost him twice as much.

We specialize in California divorce and can assist you with preparing your divorce forms at an affordable price.

Divorce Process As Confusing As Divorce Paperwork – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Divorce Process As Confusing As Divorce Paperwork – Santa Clarita

I had a call today from a gentleman that was asking some questions about how to fill out certain paperwork. I was happy to spend a few minutes on the phone with him, telling him what forms were necessary to complete.

Then I told him which forms had to be served, which had to be filed and which ones he did not have to fill out at all. That is when he said he had had enough. He hired us right there on the spot.

You see, the divorce paperwork, as difficult and confusing as it is, is just one part of the equation. The other half of the equation is the to make sure to follow proper procedure. Because if you are lucky enough to complete the paperwork correctly, you still stand a change of having your paperwork rejected for not following procedure.

So what are we talking about here? We are talking about such things at the process of service. For instance, the very first forms in a family law case have to be personally served. Then you have to file the proof of service with the court.

Another area people have difficulty is with the financial disclosures. You need to only serve those documents on your spouse, they are not file with the court in most cases. Then you need to file a totally different form with the court which says you complied with this step..

If you made this far, the worst is still to come. Now you have to tackle the judgment forms which are the most confusing of all. The best part (not!) about the completing the judgment is that you get to submit it and them wait 3 months to find out if you did everything correctly. Most folks who represent themselves and do their own paperwork do not fare very well in this process.

Give us a call and let the experts prepare your divorce paperwork. That is all w do, day in and day out. It’s not sexy, but we are the only legal document preparation firm in Los Angeles County that specializes in divorce.

Choose A Paralegal That Specializes In Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Choose A Paralegal That Specializes In Divorce In Santa Clarita

Why should you choose a legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce? If you are going to hire a paralegal to assist you with your divorce, why wouldn’t you choose one where divorce is all they do?

Most legal document preparation companies prepare a vast array of legal documents. They prepare everything from bankruptcy to small claims to immigration. Instead of following suit in the normal business model, we have decided to specialize in divorce so we would be the natural choice when deciding who to use to assist you with your divorce in Los Angeles County.

Because we specialize in divorce, we prepare the most divorce cases of any paralegal or legal document assistants in all of Los Angeles County. Often, taking on more than 5 new divorce cases per week.

Divorce and family law is a specialty area of law. There is constant law and procedural changes that one must stay on top of. This is impossible if your are not preparing divorce cases everyday as we are.

We are immersed in divorce as that is all we do day in, and day out. It may seem redundant, but every case is different and has to be handled individually.

With an unprecedented amount of divorce cases rejected every year, it is important to use a company that specializes in divorce so you know your are working with a company that can not only help get your divorce paperwork approved, but guide you and help you understand the procedure of divorce as well.

We are full service divorce firm in Santa Clarita. We help you prepare all your documents, file and serve them and take you from start to finish for one affordable flat fee.

Using a paralegal legal document assistant that specializes in divorce is a smart choice when getting divorced. The best part is that it does not cost you any more to work with the best.

There Are Many Reasons Your Divorce Judgment Can Be Rejected

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

There Are Many Reasons Your Divorce Judgment Can Be Rejected

If you are one of the many people who have completed your divorce on your own, then you know how challenging it has been.

You know of the countless hours you spent completing all the paperwork and making sure you did it right.

Then you get to where you have to complete the judgment paperwork and soon realize that you may be over your head because of how many forms are involved and how confusing the questions are. But you think to yourself, “I got this far, i’m sure i can do it”.

So you work through the forms, make all the copies, get the signatures and then submit your final judgment. A month goes by, 2 months then three. You start to forget about it and figure it is done, because there is no way it could take this long if the court was going to reject it.

Then on month 3 or 4 your get a package in the mail from the court. You are excited that your divorce is over and rip open the package containing your judgment.

“Wait, what is this? A Reject sheet?” As you read through the reject sheet you are slowly realizing that your paperwork had errors, probably multiple errors, even errors that seem to be ridiculous as the reasons your divorce judgment was rejected.

So after 3 or 4 months, now receiving a reject on your divorce judgment, you realize that you are going to have to do this again. As the frustration sets in, maybe you throw everything in a corner to deal with it another day or maybe you plan on taking another stab at it and fixing the issues with the judgment.

There are many reasons your divorce judgment can be rejected. Most likely it was not a single issue that resulted in your divorce being rejected, rather numerous issues. The reject sheet lists about 50 reasons and then there is always that “other” box which makes the reasons you divorce judgment can be rejected infinite.

What we recommend is coming to us to prepare a judgment review. We will do a complete review of your paperwork. Not just the judgment paperwork, but all the paperwork leading up to the judgment as well.

We have been providing expert divorce paralegal services for several years now and can help you through this frustrating time. Give us a call so we can help finish your divorce and put this all behind you.

We are headquartered in Santa Clarita and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Service At Los Angeles Divorce Courts Likely To Worsen

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Service At Los Angeles Divorce Courts Likely To Worsen

The courts have reported that there will be further court closures, additional restructuring and another round of layoffs which will impact over 500 Court employees in the next few months.

Those of us in the industry are already starting to feel the impact. We are starting to have much longer delays in getting documents filed with the court than we have in the past.

Normally, we could file a new divorce case by mail on a Monday and have the filed copies back the same week. The last case we filed just came back from the court, and we sent it to them 10 days ago.

It makes me wonder what the court is doing with the documents we mail in. I know the Post Office is getting the mail there the next day, so are the forms just sitting there for over a week before the clerk decides to stamp them and mail them back to me?

I have had to make sure I am aware of the slower service of the courts when letting my clients know when they can expect their cases filed.

This will certainly have an impact on when you can expect to have your final judgment forms signed off by the judge. Currently, the courts are taking up to 3 months to sign off on judgments. This could easily go into the 4 to 5 month range.

The other area we will see some issues is with how long it will take to get a hearing when filing a request for order from the court. Most court are running approximately 45 to 60 days before you can get in front of a judge. This will most likely be increase as well.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce in Los Angeles County. Please give us a call if you need assistance with completing your divorce case.

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Have you thought about who is going to take the animals when you get divorced?

Believe it or not, animals are property that need to be divided, just like your home, cars and bank accounts. But unlike the property, there is no way to get 50% of the dog, so there is going to have to be some discussion on who is getting Fido.

Most people don’t address the issue of who is getting the family pet. In fact, we don’t usually address this in the judgment, but you certainly can.

I was asked, just this week, how the issues about their clients dogs can be addressed and when.

As mentioned above, dogs, cats and hamsters need to go to someone. In most cases, you can simply decide who is going to get the pets.

In other cases, you can decide to include who is getting the dog by including them on the divorce judgment forms and assigning them to one of the parties, just like you do all the other property.

On the divorce judgment forms, there is two sections for dividing up property. If the dog was the family pet, this would be considered community property. You would simply list the pet on the community property section under either the petitioner or respondent.

Dogs are considered chattel which is a fancy legal term for property. You can research that term if your interested.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document prep firm in Santa Clarita that specialize in divorce and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Husband And Wife At Divorce Consultation A Good Idea In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Husband And Wife At Divorce Consultation A Good Idea In Santa Clarita

I have been talking on video and on my podcast this week about the success I have had when meeting with both husband and wife at the same time when going through a divorce in Santa Clarita.

I had not done it before, not because i had any issue with it, but because nobody has asked. It just happened that on three separate occasions this week, it was requested that both spouses would be at the initial meeting to get started with the divorce.

It turned out to work amazingly great and I highly recommend it!

Watch this brief video where i talk more about the divorce process when meeting with both husband and wife at the divorce consultation.

These meetings were extremely productive for one. I was able to answer all their questions and get a huge portion of the divorce paperwork done for both husband and wife.

This can best be described by telling you the differences when meeting with only one spouse.

When I meet with just one spouse, which is the majority of the times, i end up having to explain everything we going to do, two times. Once when I meet in office with spouse number 1 and again when I have to spouse number two when they learn they are getting divorced.

This obviously won’t be possible in all cases, but where you are still on fairly good terms with your spouse and think you could be in a room together, i highly recommend it.

It will save you from having to explain the whole process to your spouse once you left our offices. It is easier to just let me explain the divorce process and have both of you ask all the questions of me, instead of hearing it third party from your spouse who you are divorcing.

When you call us, let me know you are interested in coming in with your spouse so we can plan on getting a large portion of the documents done in a single meeting.

 

How To Avoid Being Overwhelmed During Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Avoid Being Overwhelmed During Divorce In Santa Clarita

I have been doing a lot podcasts where I have been discussing some tips on how to avoid getting overwhelmed and frustrated.

I gave some tips, which I will explain here, on how to go about breaking up the divorce paperwork into different steps.

Most people try to tackle all the paperwork at once. This is a bad idea. The first thing you need to take care of the the initial divorce forms that are necessary to file your divorce case.

The only forms you need to complete to file for divorce in California is the Summons, Petition and Family law case cover sheet. If you have kids, also include a UCCJEA.

Once you have these 3 of 4 forms completed, you can file them with the court, get a stamped copy and be ready to serve the divorce forms on your spouse. Get this done right away as this is when the 6 months waiting period begins.

Now that you have your spouse served and proof of service filed with the court, you can move onto the next step.

The next step is to complete your disclosures. This means doing your income and expense declaration and the schedule of assets and debts. Make sure to serve copies of most recent statements when you do this. Don’t file these with the court, you only serve them on your spouse. The only form you will file here, is the declaration regarding service of declaration of disclosure. This tells the court you complied with this step.

Once you have done all this, all is left is the divorce judgment forms. I say “just” but this is, by far, the hardest part. There are up to 25 different page of divorce forms you have to complete here. Make just one mistake, and the court will reject your filing and return everything to you.

This will set your divorce back by at least 3 months. This is why we recommend that, even if you have completed all the documents yourself up to this point, that you have a professional company prepare your divorce judgment for you.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm in Santa Clarita that specializes in divorce.