How Do I Prepare True Default Divorce Judgment | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How Do I Prepare True Default Divorce Judgment | Santa Clarita

What forms are necessary to prepare your final divorce judgement paperwork depends upon how you proceeded up to this point.

The true default divorce judgment would be filed under the following circumstances.

  1. Your spouse did not file a response &
  2. There is no written agreement between the parties.

Watch this video for an explanation of the forms necessary to file a true default divorce judgment.

Remember, that you cannot file the default until at least 30 days have passed since you served the initial divorce paperwork.  You can file the default along with the remainder of the divorce paperwork if you wish.

We have provided a checklist of what forms are necessary to file the true default divorce judgment.  We use the checklist to mark of the documents just to make sure we have included all the correct documents.  We also submit the judgment checklist to the court when we submit the judgment.  This accomplished two things. First, it lets the courts know that we have used their checklist and understand the process.  Second, each of the checklists indicate what type of divorce judgment we are submitting, therefore it gives the court a heads up about what forms to be looking for.

The paperwork you submit for the true default is different than that of the uncontested hybrid divorce judgments and contested divorce judgments.

There are a lot of forms that need to be submitted when completing your divorce judgment.  We don’t recommend attempting it on your own. We have spoke to folks who have submitted their judgment 6 times and still get them rejected.

Please give us a call to discuss having us professionally prepare your entire divorce so you don’t have to try and figure out all the confusing divorce forms.  We have helped hundreds of clients get through the divorce process.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce.

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To File Ex-Parte Motion

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To File Ex-Parte Motion

Everytime I get a question from one of my clients or anyone that calls for that matter, I try to make it a habit to also answer that question on video.

Today I was asked what the process is for filing an Ex-Parte motion in court.    But let’s first talk about what Ex-Parte means.  Ex-Parte means “for oneself” and generally refers to going to court without the other party being present.  It also has other applications.

The Los Angeles County Bar Association prepared a tip called Preparing for and making and Ex Parte Application which you can read and stated that Ex Parte relief is requested when it is impractical or impossible to wait the minimum statutory period for  the court to hear a regular motion.

For Instance, lets say you want to go to court because you want an order for spousal support.  If you were to file a Request For Order with the court, you may be looking anywere from 30 to 60 days depending on which court you are in and how busy they are.

If you can’t wait 60 days, because for instance, you would have no other source of income and you are going to be evicted, that may qualify as an emergency.  So going into court Ex Parte may be necessary to get orders from the court sooner.

It is important that you still give the other party notice that you will going to court.  This is called giving ex parte notice.  Per the LACBA article, you have to give ex parte notice prior to 10:00 a.m. the day before you want to appear in court.  This way the other party has some advance notice so they can also make an appearance in court if they choose.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  Please give us a call if you would like more information about our affordable divorce services.

Completing Declaration Of Disclosure | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Completing Declaration Of Disclosure | Santa Clarita Divorce

The declaration of disclosure form FL-140 can be considered the cover page or face page to the financial disclosures.  You will use it as the to page to the the schedule of assets and debts and income and expense declaration when preparing your divorce paperwork.

When you prepare the declaration of disclosure there are 5 check boxes that you can check to indicate which forms you are completing and serving on the other party.

first thing you want to do is make sure to mark the correct box on the declaration of disclosure in regards to whether you are filing your preliminary or final declaration of disclosure.  In most cases you will be filing your preliminary declaration of disclosure.  If you are the Petitioner in your divorce, you would mark the “Petitioner” box and the “Preliminary” box to indicate to the court who you are and what you are filing.

Again, this page is used mostly as a cover sheet.  You can mark the box that says you are filing one of 5 different forms:

  1. A completed Schedule of Assets and Debts
  2. A completed income and expense declaration
  3. A statement of all material facts and information regarding valuation of all assets that are community property or in which the community has an interest
  4. A statement of all material facts and information regarding obligations for which the community is liable.
  5. An accurate and complete written disclosure of any investment opportunity, business opportunity, or other income-producing opportunity presented.

In most cases, as is pertains to your preliminary declaration of disclosure, checking box 1 and 2 is sufficient.  If it gets to the point where you need to file the final declaration of disclosure, you may need to check boxes 3,4 and 5 and provide the necessary forms.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service trying to demystify the divorce process and provide an affordable divorce solution.

 

Santa Clarita Divorce Self Help Videos

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce Self Help Videos

We are proud to bring an entire lineup of divorce self help videos to Santa Clarita and all of Los Angeles County.

Our divorce self help videos are a first in the legal self help industry.  To date, we have been the only legal document preparation service to prepare a complete series on how to complete the divorce process totally on video.

We cover every document and every divorce form there is to prepare your divorce yourself.  We chose to deliver this method of instruction as it would be near impossible to do it soley in print.

Additionally, there is plenty of divorce information on the internet these days, but most is hard to understand or not in an instructional format.

In our self help divorce videos we go into detail on each of the forms and discuss the divorce process.  We are not providing you with our way of doing things, rather we reference the California divorce website and use the divorce process as discussed on their family law website.

We will show you the divorce process as outlined by the California court systems them show you the forms on video and show you how to prepare the divorce forms individually.

Now while we are providing a free legal service, it is not without some benefit to us.  We do hope that you find the videos informative and valuable.  However, admitedly we are hoping to provide this divorce information and that some folks will seek our our divorce service to help them prepare their divorce paperwork and get through the divorce process.

We are licesned and bonded legal document assistants who specialize in the divorce process.  If you would like assistance in preparing your divorce, we are a great affordable attorney alternative.  Give us a call if you would like to learn more about our divorce assistance service in Santa Clarita.

How To Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have prepared a series of videos on how to prepare your divorce paperwork and how to serve your divorce paperwork.

We discuss the process of serving divorce papers as described by the family law courts.  There are specific rules that you must follow when serving divorce papers in Santa Clarita.  One such rule is that you cannot serve your own divorce papers.

How To Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

But the tricky part is knowing what forms to use, where to find them and how to fill them out.  Then, there is the issue of filing he proof of service with the cours.

We discuss the various forms that can be used to serve the divorce papers and why you would want to use one form over the other .

We also go into detail and fill out both the proof of service of summons and the notice of acknowledgment of receipt right on the video so you can see how we are preparing each of the proof of service forms.

As licensed and bonded legal document assistants that specialize in the divorce process in Santa Clarita.  We have years of experience getting folks through the divorce process which includes working for family law firms, the divorce courts and family law self help centers.

We hope that the videos we have prepared on how to complete the divorce forms helps those that are going through the divorce process in Santa Clarita on their own.  If you ever decide that you need our assistance, we would be happy to discuss how our affordable divorce paralegal service works.

If you need assistance locating any of the divorce forms including the proof of service of summons or notice of acknowlegment of receipt, we would be happy to point you in the right direction.

 

How To File For Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To File For Divorce in Santa Clarita

We are Santa Clarita’s number one divorce document preparation service.  In fact, we are the only legal document assistant firm in Santa Clarita and only firm in Los Angeles to specialize in divorce.

We have provided a series of “how to” divorce videos to assist clients looking to represent themselves during their divorce.

In this video we discuss the process of completing the initial divorce documents so you can start your divorce case.  We go in detail on how to complete the divorce summons and divorce petition.  You can follow along and complete your divorce forms or just use as a reference.

We will show you what the different checkboxes are on the summons and petition and how to file the documents so you can get a case number.  There is an entire series of divorce videos that you can watch that will walk you through the entire divorce process.

If you would like to have your divorce professionally prepared and don’t have the time to watch each of these videos, prepare all your own documents and try to figure out the complex divorce process, we welcome your call.

We would be happy to discuss how our divorce document preparation service works and how we can take the burden off of you as we can take care of the entire divorce process from start to finish.

And if you attempted your divorce own your own and are not sure what to do next, we can pick up where you left off to make sure you make it through the divorce so you can move on with your life.

Please give us a call to find out about our affordable divorce document preparation services in Santa Clarita.  We serve all of Los Angeles County divorce courts.

 

 

 

Avoid Going To Divorce Court | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Avoid Going To Divorce Court | Santa Clarita Divorce

While there are many reasons why you may have to make a court appearance during your divorce process, there are a couple things you can do to reduce the chances of having to go to court.

I received a call the other day from someone who attempted to complete the divorce on their own.  They completed all the paperwork correctly, or so they thought.  One of the issues with the family law courts, is that there is nobody checking your divorce paperwork along the way.

That means that you can file your paperwork completely wrong and nobody will say a thing.  You can even forget to file certain paperwork or forget to serve paperwork, and again you won’t hear any complaints from the court.

That is until you submit your judgment for review.  You see, when you file a document with the court, the clerks only job is to stamp it and give you a copy.  They do not review your divorce paperwork or check to make sure it is correct.

The first time anyone will review any part of your paperwork is when you file the final judgment for divorce.

I know first hand how it works as I have been the one, on occasion, in the courts reviewing some of the judgments that come in.

We were always able to tell which judgments were filed by those who were not aware of the process and those done by professionals such as legal document assistants.

So how is this article about avoiding court?  Well, back to this person that called.  His judgment and divorce paperwork was done so incorrectly that the court sent him a notice asking him to appear in court.  Why?  Because they thought it would be unlikely that he ever get the paperwork right considering how bad the judgment was put together.

There are other reasons why you would have to go to court.  This may because you filed a True Default divorce case and did not evenly distribute the assets and debts.  This happened to another person I spoke with.

If you are representing yourself it would serve you well to use our professional divorce preparation services.  We have the experience it takes to complete your divorce paperwork correctly and submit your judgment so that it get signed off and you can move on with your life.