How To Serve Your California Divorce Forms | Personal Service & Mail Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

One of the biggest misunderstandings and questions I get is about how and who can serve the divorce papers if you are divorcing in California.

We will discuss the process of service in this post and have also included a video of the different types of mail service and personal service and who can serve which forms.

Watch this brief video about serving divorce papers or continue reading below.

In the video we discuss who can file your divorce forms and how to file the proof of service forms.

Remember, that the initial divorce forms (summons and petition) have to be personally served.  They have to be personally served by someone over 18 and cannot be you.

The video above will walk you through how to fill out the California divorce proof of service of summons (personal service form).

There is a way that you can mail your initial divorce forms to your spouse as well.  Again, it cannot be done by you.  So you will have to have someone mail the divorce summons and petition to your spouse.  You need to complete and include a notice of acknowledgment of receipt form FL-117.  You spouse, once received, will have to sign the form which acknowledges that they have received the divorce papers.

When they mail it back to you, you will then complete the proof of service of summons and attach the notice of acknowledgment of receipt.  Both need to be filed together with the court at the same time.  Make sure to check the appropriate boxes on the proof of service of summons.

We are a divorce legal service that specializes in the divorce process.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.  Regardless of where you live in Los Angeles, we can help you.

We have the divorce process down to a science and and help many clients who do not want to drive to our office by assisting them via phone, fax and email.

Please give us a call at 661-281-0266 and we can discuss your specific divorce case and let you know how we can help you.

Will Divorce Mediation Work For You | Santa Clarita Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The process of divorce mediation where you and your spouse will sit down with a neutral third party to resolve the issues in your divorce.  Divorce mediation can be good options for many couples going through divorce.

But is divorce mediation for you and will it work?  A lot of this comes down to you and your spouse.  Here are a few things to consider:

  • Is the decision to divorce mutual?
  • Have you considered the financial benefits of mediation?
  • Can you sit in a room with your spouse?
  • Will both of you work towards and amicable agreement?

These are just of few of the questions you will want to ask yourself before deciding on using a Santa Clarita mediation company for your divorce.

We feel mediation should be attempted in all divorce cases, regardless of what your relationship is with your spouse.  We are not mediators so it is not to our benefit to tell you that you should try mediation.

We have seen the downside of spouses fighting it out with their attorneys.  Let me tell you, nobody wins except the your lawyers.

As a legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce in Santa Clarita, we sometimes have clients that are having trouble coming up with a solution to a particular issue.  Perhaps it is financial or perhaps they need help coming up with a suitable parenting plan.

When this happens, we often refer them to get some professional mediation.  Mediation can handle a single issue or they can help you come up with an agreement on all issues related to divorce.

There are many benefits to going through divorce mediation as opposed to hiring an attorney.  You will save yourself financially and emotionally and end up with a better arrangement by using mediation for your divorce.

If you are considering divorce meditation, make sure to give us a call first.  Prior to mediation you will need to file for divorce and prepare you preliminary declaration of disclosures.  We take care of the document preparation and then you can move on to the mediation company if need be.  Once you are done with mediation, you simply come back to us so we can prepare your final divorce judgment.

 

Different Types Of Divorce Mediators | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are a company that specializes in divorce document preparation in Santa Clarita.  We are not mediators, but often work with divorce mediators in Santa Clarita and wanted to discuss these different types of mediators.

There are different types of divorce mediators out there and we wanted to share with you this information so you can make the best choice and understand what your money is paying for.

First off, let’s talk about divorce mediators that are actual attorneys.  These types of divorce mediators work as a neutral third party.  This means that they do not represent either one of the spouses, rather they work to assist both of you.

The divorce mediators will meet with you together, explain the law as it relates to your case so both of you can make informed decisions.  They will explain what a judge may or may not order if you go court as well.

Divorce mediators who are attorneys are able to draft a Marital Settlement Agreement or MSA for short.  This marital settlement agreement can be used to submit to the court and has all the legal language required in a divorce judgment.

This marital settlement agreement is then attached to the judgment forms and submitted to the court.

You are going to pay more for these types of divorce mediators because they are attorneys.  However, at the end of the divorce mediation process, you will have a completed MSA ready for submission to the courts.

On the other hand, you have divorce mediators that are not attorneys.  These non attorney mediators cannot provide you with a legal document used for court. Non attorney mediators cannot practice law and therefor cannot draft the MSA which is necessary to submit to the court.  So at the end of your mediation in these cases, you have little more than a written document which will later need to be translated to a marital settlement agreement.

Non attorney mediators are much less in cost than attorney mediators.  Essentially, this is due to the final product you receive.

Depending on what you are trying to achieve in your divorce mediation will dictate which type of divorce mediator you should chose.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce.  Please call us for more information regarding mediation services in Santa Clarita.

Refinancing Home Loan During Divorce With Wells Fargo Bank

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I wanted to share a great opportunity for those folks who have a Wells Fargo Bank Loan and who may be going through a divorce.

This does not only apply to those going through a divorce, but this information will help folks who find themselves going through divorce and needing to refinance.

I have many clients going through divorce who need to do something with their home.  Either sell it, rent it or have one of the parties taken off the loan so the other spouse can keep the home.

The problem is that one of the spouses may not qualify on their own or they may be unable to refinance because the home is worth less than they owe on the loan or perhaps they don’t have good enough credit.

The good news is that if you have a Wells Fargo Loan they will refinance your home even if you have bad credit, are underwater on your loan or have no income.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Must be Wells Fargo Loan
  • No Income Verification
  • Upside down on mortgage okay
  • Appraisal value not taken into consideration
  • Only one original mortgage holder required to remain on loan

Needless to say, this is a great opportunity for everyone.  Hard to believe that there is no income verification and that they will refinance to today’s rate regardless of the loan to value.

For those who faced the problem described above where you need to remove one of the parties from the loan, this takes care of two issues.  First, you can refinance and get a great rate.  Second, you can remove your spouse from the loan and refinance in your name alone.

I was glad to learn of this program from Wells Fargo.  I will be making sure to ask all my clients if they have a Wells Fargo loan when handing their divorce from now on.

If you would like more information about this Wells Fargo program and are going through divorce feel free to give me a call.

We are a licensed divorce service in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the Courts in California.

Let’s Talk About Divorce Mediation In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you read my blogs often you know we are the place to go in Santa Clarita for affordable divorce document preparation.

But what we are going to do over the next couple of weeks is start talking about divorce mediation in Santa Clarita.

Divorce mediation is not talked about much in Santa Clarita and there are things you need to know about mediation that can  benefit you.

We plan on writing at least 25 different articles that will hopefully make divorce mediation more understandable, to discuss if divorce mediation is an option for you or if you even need a divorce mediator at all.

We have tried to get a few divorce mediators to come into our office to discuss the mediation process in person so we can get that information out to our readers.  But we can’t wait any longer and are going to get it out on our own.

On top of the articles we plan on writing we will also do an accompanying video on divorce mediation in Santa Clarita that you will be able to find on our YouTube channel.

We feel that folks unnecessarily run to an attorney when they decide to get divorced.  There are better options in most cases than using a divorce lawyer for your case.

As much as 90% of divorced cases never need an attorney and you can get through the divorce process by using our Santa Clarita Divorce Service alone or a combination of our services and divorce mediation.

In any case, we plan on getting the word out about divorce mediation in Santa Clarita so you are aware of the benefits of mediating your divorce instead of litigating.

We will talk about the different types of divorce mediation services out there and what to watch out for.  As with every industry, there are the good ones and the bad apples.

Keep tuned to our blog posts as we discuss all there is to know about the divorce mediation process in Santa Clarita.

Santa Clarita Divorce Mediation | A Santa Clarita Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What does it mean to mediate your divorce?  Want the easy answer?  Good!

When you go to a mediator, you are asking a neutral third party attorney to assist you with coming to an agreement about the terms of your divorce.

A mediator will work with both spouses to explain how the law works so you can make informed decisions on how to best divide your assets and debts and to work on parenting plans, etc.  Essentially, mediators will help with whatever issues you are unable to resolve on your own.

Once you are in agreement, they will draft a “marital settlement agreement” or MSA which you will sign.

But why are we discussing this on a divorce document preparation service site you ask?  Because mediation is the next step if you cannot come to an agreement on your divorce.

Let me give you an example.

Many people who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on their divorce come to me to prepare their divorce for them.  These folks are mostly in agreement on the terms of their divorce.  But there may be one or two sticky points they are still working on.

What we will do is get their divorce filed and start the process.  We will prepare and complete all the necessary mandatory forms including the financial disclosures.  Once this is done, you are ready to work towards some type of agreement on the distribution of your assets and debts.

Let’s assume at this point that you are unable to come to an agreement on say a parenting plan or the amount of support to be paid.  Where you are unable to make decisions, using a mediator can help.

A mediator can provide you with the information you need so you can make informed decisions.  A divorce mediator is far better than the parties going out and hiring individual attorney’s.  There is certainly a cost advantage to using a divorce mediator.

I have clients that come to me who later need mediation.  I refer them out to a local Santa Clarita divorce mediation team who will help them through their issues and draft the marital settlement agreement.

Once the agreement is drafted, they come back to me to finish up the divorce documentation and we submit the final judgment.

What we recommend is that you start your divorce with us and allow us to get all the paperwork done for you.  This will save you a lot of money.  Then if you need to speak to a divorce mediator, you can go to them for help on an agreement.  Then we will wrap up your divorce for you.

You Have 30 Days After Divorce Petition Served To File Response | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are going through a divorce in California, one thing you will receive is the Summons.  The divorce Summons can be scary to read so I wanted to discuss this form in detail.

The first thing the divorce summons says is “You Are Being Sued”.  What do you mean you are being sued?  Look, while this is a family law matter, it is still a lawsuit filed in a court of law.  You just need to get over it.  And understand this. You are being sued, but not like in civil court where you are the defendant because someone has alleged you have done something wrong.

The next thing you will read is the following caption:

“You have 30 calendar days after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response at the court and have copy served on the Petitioner.  A letter or phone call will not protect you.  If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage, your property, and custody of your children…”

Of all the divorce forms, this one troubles people the most and I want to discuss a few things.

First of all, what the court is referring to about the “30 days to file a response” is in regards to the other party having the ability to file a “Request to enter Default”.  While technically it is true that you need to file a response in 30 days, it is not necessary if you are planning on proceeding by way of default or by using a hybrid judgment for your divorce.

I am a big fan of the hybrid divorce.  This is a cross between a default and an uncontested.  A hybrid divorce judgment allows you to do all the things required by an uncontested divorce (both parties complete financial disclosures and enter into a written agreement) and a true default divorce.

When preparing a hybrid style divorce, you do not have to worry about filing a response.  So while the Summons says you have to file a response or risk losing certain rights, it is not part of the paperwork when completing a hybrid divorce in California.  This is because with a hybrid a request to enter default will be filed.

The difference is that the request to enter default will be submitted with the final divorce judgment along with the agreement instead of after the 30 day mark.

If you have more questions about the California Divorce Summons or about the “30 days to respond” language, please feel free to give us a call.

We are a licensed divorce service located at 27240 Turnberry Lane, Ste. 200 Valencia, CA 91355 and can be reached at 661-281-0266.

Santa Clarita Divorce Service Celebrating National Small Business Week

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are proud to be a small business in Santa Clarita.  And if you didn’t know, this week is National Small Business Week, so we are celebrating.

But what are we celebrating exactly?  Well, we have worked hard to grow our small business in the last year.  We have taken our Santa Clarita divorce service from a home based business working out of our loft to a executive office in Valencia with 3 employees in less than a year.  That is cause for celebration.

When we first started, we would meet clients at Starbucks on the corner of Valencia Blvd and The Old Road.  When we first started we were not sure if this would be a viable business model.  We were pretty sure there was a demand for affordable divorce services in Santa Clarita, but were not sure if there was enough demand to allow us to keep our prices low enough for most people to afford our service.

After a little more than a year, our Santa Clarita divorce business is doing well.  We now employ three people in Santa Clarita.  When we hired our first employee, the business took on an entirely new feel.  I now was responsible for the welfare of another persons livelihood.  It is like when you have a baby, you realize it is no longer just about you.

We are also now working with the College of the Canyons Paralegal Program and assisting with training some of their soon-to-be-paralegals who are required to complete (2) sixty hour internships as part of their curriculum.  Some of their students perform internships with us and learn the in’s and out’s of working with a family law divorce service.

Running a small business is tough.  We put in a lot of hours to keep the business going.  Having a small business means thinking about it 24 hours a day and it can really consume you.

We are looking forward to expanding our services into the surrounding counties over the next couple of years.

Here is to all the Santa Clarita small business who make this community great and provide jobs and services to our community.

 

 

What Our Santa Clarita Full Service Divorce Firm Does For You

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When people call our Santa Clarita divorce service, they often want to know all what we do.  Well, we are a full service divorce company which means we take care of everything.  Lets discuss this in detail.

We Prepare All The Divorce Forms

We prepare all the divorce forms for you.  This is as opposed to send you a long questionnaire to have you fill it out. (which is the standard in the industry).  Most companies that provide legal document preparation will place the burden on you to complete a long (sometimes 25 page long) questionnaire.  What they expect you to do it all the work basically.

That is not how we operate.  We will prepare all your documents for you.  You simply provide the information we request and documents we require and sign your name.

We File All Documents With The Court

Did you know that other companies will complete your documents, then tell you to go to the court and file them? Unbelievable.  We operate just like a law firm does, which means we employ an attorney service that files all our divorce papers for us.  This means you never have to go to court and your forms are hand carried to the courts.  This ensures a fast and secure way of getting your divorce forms filed with the court.

We Serve All Divorce Documents

Again, being full service means taking care of everything.  This includes handling the service of all your documents.  This part can be tricky if your not familiar with court procedure.  Some forms have to be filed, others do not.  Some divorce forms have to be personally served, while others can be served by mail.  We take the guesswork out of the divorce procedure and handle this for you.

We Prepare And Submit Your Final Divorce Papers

When all the procedural steps to the divorce have been completed and documents done, we will prepare your final judgment or agreement.  Once the parties agree on the terms of the divorce, we will prepare the final agreement.  After your judgment is signed, it needs to be submitted to the court.  We do this for you. We will have your judgment hand delivered to the judgment clerk at the court.  This will ensure your case is reviewed quickly by the court and approved.

This was just a glimpse of what we provide with our Santa Clarita full service divorce.  Of course we always available for questions along the way. Because we have worked for large Santa Clarita law firms and the courts, we understand the forms and divorce procedure like the back of our hand.

When you are ready to file for divorce, don’t make the mistake of trying to do it yourself or spending thousands of dollars using an attorney.  Just give us a call and we will take care of your divorce from start to finish.

More Layoffs Announced For LA Courts | Divorce To Take Longer

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

It was announced this week that the Los Angeles Superior Courts were going to get rid of more than 500 jobs this week.

Here is the numbers.

  • 511 Jobs cut by the end of this week.
  • 177 people to lose their jobs.
  • 139 people will receive demotions and pay cuts
  • 223 people transferred to new work locations

For those of us in the business of divorce, this will most certainly result in slower service, longer waits for cases to be heard and for divorce cases to be approved by the court.  Hard to think it could get worse.  As it is now, it takes up to 6 months to get a divorce judgment approved…

Since 2008, some courts have closed and there have been almost 900 people let go.

So as the level of service goes down, the costs to get divorced go up.  What an amazing business model.  If anyone else ran their company like this, they would not last long at all.

So what does this mean for those going thorough a divorce?  First of all that 6 month waiting period or “cooling off” period you hear about simply won’t matter.  There will be no way to complete your divorce in 6 months anyways.  The file will never see a judges eyes in that time-frame.

For those in a hurry to finalize their divorce, one recommendation is to get your judgment in as soon as possible.  For those who work with us and have mostly amicable divorce cases, we can complete your paperwork in 30 days and submit it to the court.  Then, at least, we are in line for approval.  Don’t make the mistake of waiting the 6 months before submitting your divorce judgment.

So it will take longer to get divorced in Los Angeles County.  Let’s hope this is the last round of layoffs for the Los Angeles Superior Court system.  Only time will tell what these layoffs translate as far as service is concerned.