Are You Working With A Divorce Solo Practitioner Attorney | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When it comes to family law attorneys in the Santa Clarita valley, you only have a handful of choices.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty out here, but it is still a small community.

Many divorce attorneys in the Santa Clarita Valley are what you call “Solo Practitioners”.  This means that they practice alone without a partner attorney.  In most cases, this also means that they do not have any staff such as a receptionist or paralegal to assist them.

This brings me to the topic I wanted to address.  If you are working with a solo practitioner who does not have a staff or paralegal assisting them, you are going to end up paying the attorney’s hourly rate for everything that is done on your divorce case.

Case in point.  I had a new client that had me file their divorce case.  She just wanted to file the petition and get things started with our company because she felt there was a good chance she would need a divorce attorney down the road.

So we filed the summons and petition and had her spouse served.  She then went on a consultation with a divorce attorney in Santa Clarita.  The divorce attorney was a solo practitioner with no staff or paralegal to assist him.  So she asked what his hourly rate is.  He responded that he charges $300 per hour.

The next step for her was to complete her financial disclosures.  This is hardly a process that requires and attorney to prepare.  What shocked me was that the attorney actually advised her to continue working with us to prepare her financial disclosures because it would be cheaper.

If she was to use this attorney’s services at this point, she would be looking at spending around $1,500 to complete her financial disclosures.  We can do that for a fraction of that cost.

I have talked about this many times in the past.  There is no reason to hire an attorney until you need them for legal advice or to represent you in court.

This client did exactly what someone should do who is looking to save money on their divorce, even if they need an attorney.  She hired our divorce legal to get the process started.  She had us file the summons and petition and have her spouse served.  We are preparing her financial disclosures and serving those as wel and are completing the filing with the court.

Now she can take her completed documents over to her attorney who can now litigate her divorce if necessary.  For more information you can read the article where we discuss having us start your divorce in Santa Clarita even if you know you will need an attorney by clicking on this link.

Important To Remember What Happened In Court | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have had several of our clients go to court lately.  No matter how many times I tell them to remember what happens in court, they often forget.

I don’t blame them.  There is a lot going on and they are nervous and in unfamiliar territory.  The problem is that we need to know what orders the judge made so that we can do what they said to do.

Most recently we had a client go to court and the judge made some orders.  Our client called us to inform us that he was not sure exactly what the judge said he had to do.

All he could remember is that a new trial date was set and that he was supposed to complete his judgment before the trial date.

When this happens, we want to make sure what was said in court so we can complete whatever the judge informed us to.  So what we did was have our attorney service go to the department and ask for a copy of the minute order.  Click on this link for more information of what a minute order during a divorce hearing is.

When we received the minute order, it said that he was supposed to give his spouse notice of the next hearing.  He did not hear that part.  Here is the problem with that.  If he had not contacted us to help him with his divorce, he would have not known about giving notice of the next hearing.

Seems harmless enough, but had he shown up to court without giving notice of the hearing and trial, he would have shown up and the court would have realized that the other party was not informed of the hearing and had to continue the case to yet another court date.

Representing yourself during your divorce can be very challenging and have significant setbacks.  No wonder it takes people representing themselves during divorce so long to get through the process.

We recommend you use a competent divorce firm to help you with your divorce paperwork.

SCV Legal Doc Assist

27240 Turnberry Lane, Ste. 200 Valencia, CA 91355

Self Help Divorce Legal Representation In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What does it mean to work with a self help divorce legal representation company in Santa Clarita?

Essentially it means that we provide a self help service.  As a self help divorce service, you are technically representing yourself.  We are here to assist you in preparing your divorce documents, explain the process of divorce and to keep your case moving.

We do just about everything, however we are not allowed to give you legal advice and we cannot represent you in court.  What this means is that if you do have legal questions that we cannot answer you simply need to have a consultation with an attorney, get your questions answered and then we can proceed as normal.

Many times, we will ask the divorce attorneys down the hall from our office a question here or there on your behalf if it is something that is pretty straight forward.

What started out as a divorce service where we only handled straight forward and simple divorces in Santa Clarita, we are finding that people have contested divorce cases that they are trying to get through, but just don’t have the financial resources to hire an attorney.

Sometimes this means helping them to file a motion for attorney fees so they can get a judge to order the other party pay so they can hire an attorney, and sometimes we will take them all the way through their contested divorce case.

We can get you through complicated divorce matters, but just realize the you will be the one going to court.  Surprisingly our clients are not bashful and do a great job appearing in court and representing themselves.

It works out pretty good actually and is a huge costs savings.  You work with us to prepare all your divorce documents and when you need legal advice you just need to seek out an attorney on a consultation basis only.  Then, when it is time for court, you simply show up and handle the matter on your own.

If you are looking for self help divorce legal representation in Santa Clarita please give us a call.

We Only Handle Divorce In Palmdale & Lancaster

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are going to get divorced, shouldn’t you use a company that specializes in divorce?  I believe your should.  Like I have said in the past, if you are going to have surgery, wouldn’t you want the most experienced you could find?

That said, I was doing a routine Google search to see who is offering divorce services in Palmdale and Lancaster.  I noticed there are a handful of companies that market themselves as document preparation services.

I further noticed that these document preparation companies offer all sorts of legal services.  They are saying that they can do just about any type of legal filing you need.

Here is my question.  How can you be good at any one thing when you offer so many different services?  The answer is that you cannot.

Look, we only do divorce cases.  Day in and day out it is divorce.  Divorce is a complex and difficult process to get through and the rules are changing all the time.  You have to know much more than just which boxes to check off.

We have worked for the Los Angeles County Superior courts and understand not only how to expertly prepare the divorce forms, but we understand the why behind them.  We also know how the actual procedure of divorce works with the court.

All we are saying is that if you are going to get divorced anywhere in Palmdale or Lancaster, you should be using our service.  We don’t cost anymore than the other folks.  So it is not going to cost you any extra to work for the best divorce company in the Antelope Valley.

Our main divorce offices are in the Santa Clarita Valley and are now offering our services in the Antelope Valley.  Most of our divorce cases are handled completely online or over the phone.

Don’t Fall Victim To Cheap Online Divorce Document Providers | California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are searching for online for divorce assistance in California you will undoubtedly find many cheap and low cost services.

I want you to understand the difference between a professional document preparation service and what these online services provide so you can make a decision on which is best suited for you.

I am looking at a Google search I just did for “cheap divorce”.  What you will find is divorce document preparation companies offering services as low as $89.95 for do-it-yourself kits.  Others are selling what is referred to as “automated document assembly” where you fill out an online questionnaire which will auto populate the divorce forms.

So let’s discuss a couple of these options.

Do It Yourself Divorce Kits 

Do it yourself kits are exactly that.  You pay for them to send you the divorce forms.  You will receive a box with a lot of  forms, many that you will never need.  By the way, all the divorce forms are available at the Court House or online completely free.  There is absolutely no reason to pay for your forms, but many do all the time.

Automated Document Assembly

Automated document assembly is where you answer questions online and your answers are automatically populated into the divorce forms.  It seems like a good idea at first glance, until you realize the limitations.

Here are the problems with this type of service.

  1. There is nobody there to tell you if you are providing the correct information.
  2. The divorce forms are usually not updated to the correct version.
  3. They don’t provide you with the local forms for your County.
  4. Nobody reviews your documents.  Once you save and print, you are on your own.
  5. There is no assistance with the “process” of filing and serving your documents.

I actually purchased the licensing rights at one point to sell an automated document assembly.  I had people use it and realized immediately the pitfalls and shortcomings of the software.  These types of systems have not place in a complex process such as divorce.

Full Service Divorce Document Preparation

This is what we provide, a full service divorce document preparation service.  We are licensed and bonded legal document preparers that specialize in divorce in Los Angeles County.  We have worked for the courts and for large law firms and are familiar with the process and how to correctly complete the paperwork.

Here is what you get with our service.

  1. We complete all your documents. No Questionnaires.
  2. We file all your documents with the court.  You won’t go to court.
  3. We inform you step by step of the procedure along the way.  Trust me, you will have lots of questions.
  4. We are available by phone and email to answer all your questions.

I provided this run down of the different services because I was getting too many people calling me for help with their divorce who had already wasted their money on purchasing their forms or the automated document assembly service only to be left with nothing more than paper for their trash.

Join Our Santa Clarita Divorce Service Community On Google Plus

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We continue to find ways to help people going through divorce in Santa Clarita.  As we dive into the social media scene we have decided to build a community on Google Plus.  We have created the first Santa Clarita Divorce Service Community on Google+.

To check out our Santa Clarita Divorce Service G+ Community Click This Link.

Google Plus has not seen a very large audience yet.  We are definitely getting in early on this and hope that it eventually develops into something.  As it stands now, we are the only company that posts our divorce self help articles on Google+ anywhere in the Los Angeles County Area.

If you hashtag #SantaClaritaDivorce or #LosAngelesDivorce or even just #Divorce, we are one of the only companies that comes up.  We have posted videos, podcasts and our blog posts to Google Plus which can all be found by searching by hashtag or by joining our Santa Clarita Divorce Service community.

This is just one more way for us to get the word out about our affordable divorce service in Los Angeles County.  We are still the only non-attorney legal service in Santa Clarita and are the only legal service that specializes only on divorce in all of Los Angeles County.

Were not sure if the whole divorce community thing will take off or not.  I mean, will people really post their questions there so we can help them out.  Because you have to have a Google account there may be a lack of privacy.  Divorce is a private matter and I am not sure if people will post questions if their profile can be seen by others.  Only time will tell.

At the very least, we can post our own comments and link our blog articles there so people can simply visit the G+ community.

If you have questions about divorce, we would love to hear from you whether you join our Sana Clarita Divorce Service Community or simply give us a call.

 

 

Divorcing In Santa Clarita | We Take Care Of That | SCV Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you live in Santa Clarita and are planning on divorcing, you should give us a call.  We can help you take care of your divorce in Santa Clarita.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that can take care of preparing all the divorce documents from start to finish.  We file all the documents, serve all the forms.

We operate on a fixed fee schedule which means you know how much your divorce is going to cost you before you ever get started.  No retainer fees here and we don’t charge by the hour.  You know what your getting into before you ever get started and there are no hidden fees.

You will have 2 costs when getting divorced.  You will have the court filing fee. Currently this is $435.00 and you will pay that fee whether you do your divorce yourself or have us do it for you.

The other cost you will have is our cost for preparing your divorce for you.  The fee you will pay will depend on how much work there is to do on your file.  We generally will ask you just a hand full of questions and quote you a firm price right over the phone.  You can also go to our pricing page and see where you fit in.

Here are some of the questions we ask to determine the costs for preparing your divorce.

  1. How long have you been married?  This lets us know if there might be a request for spousal support.
  2. Do you have minor children? Then we will know if we need to draft a parenting plan and child support.
  3. If there are any pensions to divide.  Pensions have to be divided by a QDRO Attorney.
  4. Amount and type of property to divide?  This will let us know how much property is at stake.

The divorce process is complicated.  It is not something you should attempt on your own.  Give us a call so we can discuss your options for getting completing the divorce process.`

Divorce Judgment Gives People The Most Trouble | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you have tried to prepare your own divorce or are considering doing so, you will learn how confusing and difficult the divorce paperwork can be.  But the worst is yet to come.

Most people will have some problems with the initial divorce documents.  They will have items rejected, not file them correctly and not fill them out right.  But the final test will be when you go to prepare the divorce judgment.

The divorce judgment is the last set of divorce documents that can be up to 25 pages long or more.  These final judgment documents give everyone  a problem.

But there is a bigger issue when completing the final divorce judgment forms and doing them wrong.  When you submit the final judgment documents, they will go into a huge pile of judgments that are also waiting to be approved.  The current wait time for your divorce judgment to be reviewed is 3 months to as long as 6 months.

This means that every time you submit your final divorce judgment, you will have to wait several months before your learn if it was done correctly or not.  I know people that attempted to complete their own divorce and have submitted their judgment 3 times.  They have been trying to complete their divorce for over 3 years.  They have been trying to get their final divorce paperwork approved for over a year.

Some people figure it out really fast that they need help and others are a glutton for punishment and keep asking for more rejection.  That was an attempt at humor, but you have to hand it to these folks that keep on trying.

Whether you have not quite gotten to the final divorce judgment phase or are one of these folks that have had the judgment rejected numerous times and are ready for help, please give us a call.

We do a lot of judgment reviews where we will take a look at your entire divorce case from beginning to end and complete and correct all the documents so they can be submitted and approved by the court.

Divorce Process Starts When Spouse Is Served | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

One of the things that keeps coming up when I am helping clients with divorce is explaining when the divorce process actually starts.  There is some confusion on this as well as what document to file to let the court know your spouse has been served.

The divorce process does not start when you file your divorce case.  When you go to the court and turn in all your papers and pay your filing fee, you will receive a comformed “stamped” copy of your divorce filing.  You and everyone else in this world feels like they have filed their divorce and therefore the divorce process has started.

The divorce process actually starts when your spouse is served, not when you file.  Everything is hinged off the day your spouse is served.  Even the 30 days to file a response or when you want to file a request to enter default.  None of these things can occur until your spouse is served.

When you file a lawsuit (which filing for divorce is) you have to give the other party notice.  Notice that you have filed for divorce and what you are asking for such as your requests in the divorce Petition.

So three things I want to clear up here.

  • The six month waiting period does not start until your spouse is served.
  • You can’t file for a default unless 30 days have passed since your spouse was served.
  • The Court won’t know your spouse was served unless you complete a proof of service and file it with the court.

These are the big three things to watch out for.  And make sure to complete your proof of service correctly.  There are several boxes you need to complete and many the person who will be doing the serving needs to complete.  I see a lot of people who do this wrong or forget to put the dates and times of service, etc.

I hope this clears up the issues of when the divorce process actually starts.  When does it start?  When your spouse is served!

Save $435 On Your Santa Clarita Divorce | Tips & Tricks

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Simply by reading this article you will learn how to save $435 on your Santa Clarita divorce.  I have seen so many people spend money they did not have to on filing fees.  Had they just used our service from the beginning, they would have saved this money.

When you file for divorce, you have to pay the $435 filing fee in Los Angeles County.  Other Counties have a similar filing fee and some are higher.  This is, of course, unless you qualify for a fee waiver for your divorce.

When one party files for divorce, you will notice on the Summons that it says that the other party has to file a Response within 30 days.  The language is very scary and says that if you don’t respond in 30 days you will lose rights and your spouse can move on without you.

So not knowing how the process actually works, your spouse files a response and pays the $435.00 also.  Now you have spent $870 on your divorce.

Would it make you mad to learn that you did not have to file the response and you could have save the $435.00?

In uncontested divorce cases, it is not necessary to file a response.  You can still participate in the divorce and enter into a written agreement without having to spend the money on the filing fee for submitting a Response.

And with uncontested divorce cases, the money being spent is usually coming from the same household.

That said, here is what we suggest.  You should call our office to have us complete your entire divorce.  That $435 you would have spent unnecessarily on the Response filing fee almost covers our cost to prepare your divorce for you.

So if you used our service, you will have saved yourself the $435 filing fee and not have to complete your divorce paperwork on your own.

We wrote this article, because many clients come to us after filing the initial divorce paperwork which included filing a response.  Had they just called us in the beginning, they would have saved that money to apply to having us complete the entire divorce for them.