Don’t Waste Your Time Attempting To Complete Your Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I am the first to say that it is possible to complete your own divorce.  To say anything else would be a lie.  But the fact that it is possible is far removed from what it will actually take to complete your own divorce if you attempt it on your own.

So why do I say it is a waste of time to attempt to complete your own divorce?  I will give you a few examples of issues and roadblocks you may face when attempting to do your own divorce.  While there are hundreds of issues you can come across when trying to do your own divorce, I will give the most common issues people face.

Believe it or not, completing some of the divorce forms is the easiest part. But many people make tons of mistakes on these forms.  And we are talking about capable people here.  It is just that the divorce forms are so foreign that it is hard to figure out what you are supposed to do in many cases.  So while completing the forms is the easiest part, most will fail to complete the forms correctly.

The next thing I see a lot when people are attempting to complete their own divorce is that they are unaware of how the process of divorce works.  For instance; What forms to complete and in what order, how to serve the divorce documents and which ones can be served by you and which need to be served by someone else.  Which forms have to be personally served and which ones can you mail.  Which forms are filed with the court and which ones are only served on your spouse.

I would consider the two issues above, that of how to complete the divorce forms and being familiar with the divorce process as the two biggest issues people have when attempting to complete their own divorce.  But there are hundreds of issues that can spiral off these to major problems.  There are so many decisions you have to make and so many easy mistakes to make.

This is why we say you should not waste your time attempting to complete your own divorce.  There is just too many things that can go wrong.  I can’t tell you how much business I get where people have tried to do their own divorce for months and sometimes years, only to come to us for assistance after wasting so much of their valuable time.

 

Non Stipulation To Commissioner During Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This is not something that comes up to often for clients representing themselves as it does for attorneys during a divorce, but it just happened to one of my clients so I wanted to address it.

This has to do with the parties agreeing to a Commissioner presiding over their divorce case instead of a Judge.

When you file for divorce, you have the right to have your divorce case heard by a judge.  However, may of the Judges in the courtrooms are not full-fledged Judges, rather they are Commissioners.  We won’t go into to detail regarding the differences here.

So when you go to a hearing where there is a Commissioner instead of a Judge, you have to sign a stipulation saying you agree to have your case heard by a Commissioner instead of a Judge.

If you don’t want to have your case heard by a Commissioner, you would sign a form saying you don’t agree to have your case heard by a Commissioner.  This is called, “Non-Stiping” a Commissioner.  Non-Stipulating a judge is common practice among attorneys in family law.  Not so much because they don’t want to have their case heard by a Commissioner, but because they don’t like the Commissioner in general.

What happened to my client today is that they went to a hearing on a motion for child support.  When the other party found out that he could delay the case simply by not agreeing or stipulating to the Commissioner, that was exactly what he did.  Not because he did not like the Commissioner, but simply to stall the case.

What happens next is that your case has to be reassigned to another division.  This happened to be at the San Fernando Courthouse where there is only 2 family law courtrooms.  There is one Judge and one Commissioner.

Due to the amount of folks non-stipulating the commissioner in San Fernando they are transferring some cases to Van Nuys.   At least that is what happened to our client.

How To Amend Your Divorce Paperwork | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I get a lot of clients coming in for our divorce service who have already started the divorce process in Santa Clarita.  One thing that I frequently find is that the initial divorce paperwork that they have filed in incorrect.

For instance, you may have spelled one of the parties names incorrectly or perhaps used the wrong date of marriage on the Petition. (Don’t worry, you’re not alone). If you have made a mistake on any of the divorce documents and have already filed them with the court, you will have to correct the issue and re file them. And if you have already served the documents, you will have to re-serve them as well.

So I thought I would discuss the proper way to amend your divorce paperwork.  Let’s talk about the initial documents, the Summons and Petition.  On the Petition itself, if you make a mistake and need to amend the form, they already have a box for you.  In the box that says “Petitioner for” you will see there is a big “Amended” box there as well.  So this form is easy.  Simply fill out the Petition correctly and mark the “Amended” box. Re-file it with the court and you are good to go.  But wait, if you amend the Petition, you have to file another Summons.

So make sure to also file an amended Summons.  There is no box on the Summons, so you can simply write the word “amended” above the word summons.  Now because these are the initial documents to be served, make sure you serve them again together, even if you had already served the first Petition and Summons.

And one last thing on this.  Don’t for get to file the amended Proof of Service of Summons.  If you fowled up these initial forms, you will have to wait another 30 days before moving forward after serving them again on your spouse.

You can amend any of the divorce documents that you file just like this by following the instructions above.

If you ran into trouble on these initial documents, you are not alone.  But so you know, these are the easier of the documents to file in your divorce.  That said, you are a good candidate for our divorce service if you had trouble with your divorce forms right out of the gate.

Please give us a call to discuss how we can help you make your divorce as pain free (and error free) as possible.

Using Our Remote Divorce Service | California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I received an email over the weekend asking if we can provide our divorce service remotely.  This person live out of Country, but had lived in California and wanted to see if we could help him with his divorce.

We have spoke about this in the past quite a bit, but thought I would discuss it again.  We are able to help you with your divorce anywhere in California, whether you are in California or not.

We have helped lots of folks finish their divorce who are out of state or out of Country.  We have helped military personnel serving in the Armed Forces who are deployed overseas to complete their divorce.   Most recently was a gentleman in the Army, serving in Germany and his divorce was completed in Sacramento.  All this while our divorce service is headquartered in Los Angeles.

We have helped clients who were living in Saudi Arabia as well as Africa.  Some places were so remote, that they did not have email and we had to mail them their divorce document to the consulate.

So, as you can see, we can help you with your divorce anywhere in California whether you are living here or not.  For the most part, the divorce process and forms are the same anywhere in California.  Each county may have a few different local forms.  We always check the court’s local website for specific forms and procedures to make sure they are the same as Los Angeles County where we are based.

You can call it a remote divorce service or online divorce service.   In fact, we have completed divorces for clients we have never met and never spoken to.  Because of time changes for folks out of Country, we did everything via email.  The last person that reached out to us for our remote divorce service was from Australia, and they are 17 hours ahead of us.

Regardless of where you live, we can help you complete your divorce in California.  Give us a call or email us for more information.

Get The Facts About Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are known in Santa Clarita for providing the facts about divorce.  Pretty much that is all we talk about, day in and day out.

The interesting thing is that we have met with clients who have already consulted with a divorce attorney and they always tell us that they learned more about divorce and the divorce process than they did during a consultation with a lawyer.

In fact, we recently had a client write us a nice Yelp comment which basically said that after working and speaking with multiple attorneys,  she learned more from us than she did with them.

We must be really smart, huh?  But here is why there is a difference. When you go to speak to an attorney, they are going to talk to you about the law.  They are not going to tell you how to do things or about the divorce process because if you hire them, you will not be involved in all that goes into getting divorced.

The other reason we go into so much detail about the divorce process is because it answers the “Why” behind why things are being done.  Often an attorney will simply tell you they are going to do something, but not tell you why they are doing it.

We want you to know not only the “Why” behind things but the how, when and where.  You see, when you work with our divorce document preparation firm, you are representing yourself.  So it is important that you understand all that goes into making a decision and so you better understand what is happening at all points along the process.

We will give you the fact about divorce and give your options on how to handle them.  We will do everything except give you legal advice and represent you in court.  Outside of those restrictions, we can do just about everything else.

Requesting Post Divorce Judgment Financial Information | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Did you know there was a way to obtain post judgment financial information on your spouse without having to go to court?  I didn’t until recently and neither do  a lot of attorneys.

This article will discuss how to request  your spouses financial information when there has already been a judgment in your case.  Why would you need to do this, you ask?  Well, if you have an order for spousal support or child support, there may be a time when you want to request a modification of the amount of money you are paying.

Generally, there needs to be a change of circumstances to request a hearing to modify either child support or spousal support.  A change in your spouses income would qualify for this.  But how do you know if your spouse is making more money?  That is where this tool is easy and does not require you to file your motion first or any formal discovery.

Here is what the family code section says on this.

“At any time following a judgment of marital (or domestic partnership) dissolution or legal separation, or a determination of paternity that provides for payment of support, either the payer or payee may serve a request on the other party for the production of a completed current income and expense declaration form, without leave of court. Fam C §3664(a). This statutory right to obtain financial information from the other party provides for the inexpensive discovery of facts before a party seeks the modification or termination of an order for child, family, or spousal support. See Fam C §§3660–3668. There is no requirement that an order to show cause or motion for modification of support be pending. Fam C §3662. This discovery technique may not be used more than once every 12 months. Fam C §3663.”

For those of us that don’t ready legalese, here is what it says in plain English.  After a judgment in your divorce you can request your spouses income information without going to court no more than once per year. (Couldn’t they have just said that?)

So, if that is the case, how do you go about doing this?  As the requesting party you should serve a Request For Production of an Income and Expense Declaration After Judgment Form (FL-396).

The party served has 35 days to complete the income and expense report and return it along with the prior years federal and state tax return and 2 months of pay stubs.

If the responding party fails to return them or is incomplete regarding any wage information, you can then serve a request for income and benefit information directly on their employer using the Request for income and benefit information from employer (Form FL-397)

Here is a link to the FL-396 Request for production of income and expense after judgment

Here is a link to the FL-397 – Request for Income and Benefit Information from Employer

If you would prefer to have our company prepare and serve these documents for you, please feel free to contact our office.

Does Your Divorce Paralegal Work For The Courts? Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

As it stands now, we are the only licensed and bonded legal document preparation company in Santa Clarita.  In fact we are the only legal document preparation company in all of Los Angeles County that specializes in divorce.

For now, we enjoy not having any competition in the Santa Clarita Valley.  However, there are lots of paralegal companies in the San Fernando Valley, many of whom are not licensed.  But there is certainly more competition in the San Fernando Valley regardless.

One thing we focus on and talk a lot about is regarding our experience in this industry of divorce and family law.  Our claim to fame is that not only are we the only legal document preparation company in all LA County to specialize in divorce, but we are also the only company that has ever worked for the Los Angeles Superior Courts.

That’s right, we have worked for the courts and completed the Los Angeles Counties family law paralegal internships.  We actually still volunteer there to  this day.

Why do I bring this up?  Again, because experience counts.  Don’t you want to work with a company that has the most experience.?  Well, you are probably thinking, “Yes, but how much does that cost?.  The funny thing is, despite the fact that we are the most experiences divorce service in Los Angeles County, our prices are still very low.  In fact we charge what you would pay with one of these other unlicensed companies.

Here is why our work with the courts is so important to you as a potential customer.  We know and understand the process of how the courts work and use that knowledge to help our clients navigate the court system.  We have worked with the Courts. We know the people that work there and are familiar with the landscape of the court.

When we send our clients to court we can tell them exactly who to talk to, where to go and how to get there.  This takes a huge burden off of you trying to figure things out and lessens the stress load considerably.

If you are faced with divorce, consider using the only divorce service in all Los Angeles County that specializes in divorce and has the experience of working with the courts.

Using Our Santa Clarita Divorce Service When Your Spouse Has An Attorney

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I have been getting more and more clients coming to our office for assistance with their divorce where their spouse has an attorney.   I wanted to address what the benefits are of using our service when your spouse has hired an attorney to represent them.

Just yesterday, I had a new client in this situation.  Her husband hired and attorney and filed for divorce.  When this new client came into our office, she said she had been to a few attorneys, but because she did not have money to retain them, they would not help her.

So she came to my office and we discussed what we could do for her and I wanted to share that with my readers.

Her husband had filed for divorce and she needed to file a Response.  Because she had taken so long trying to find an attorney, we were down the the last day to file her response.  We completed her response and then determined that she needed to file a motion for child support and to ask the court to have her husband pay her attorney fees.

So we drafted a declaration and the Request for Order, filed it with the court and obtained a court date.  We also completed all the necessary documents that go along with filing a motion with the court.

The amount of paperwork we completed that day would have taken a law firm several days to complete and cost her upwards of $2,000.  That is a lot of money just to complete the paperwork.  That money is better spent on the attorney if you need them to give you legal advice or represent you in court.  Not to complete paperwork.

In the end, we were able to get her Response filed and file her motion.  Something a divorce lawyer would not touch because she did not have the $3,500 to $5,000 she was quoted to help her.

I can tell you one thing.  In our request for attorneys fees we asked the court to have her husband pay $5,000 towards her attorney fees.  If she gets this award for attorney fees I would bet she won’t be going back to the divorce lawyers that turned her down when she did not have the money.

You can still use our divorce service, even if your spouse has hired an attorney.  We can get all the paperwork done that you need to complete for a fraction of the cost.  And if you are using our service because you don’t have the money to hire and attorney and want to ask the court to award attorney fees, we can help you prepare the appropriate motion so you can have your day in court to ask the court for attorney fees so you can hire an attorney.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service in Santa Clarita and divorce is all we do.

You Will Have Lots Of Questions About Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If I had to describe what I do on a daily basis, I would say that I spend a huge amount of my day talking to clients and answering their questions about divorce.  Interestingly enough, I answer the same questions over and over again.

That is why I started blogging and writing articles about divorce.  So that I could provide a way to answer folks questions about divorce.  In fact, that is what i do on a daily basis.  Whenever I get a question that I don’t think I answered in my blogs, I will make sure to take the time to not only write an article about it and also do a YouTube video on the issue.

In fact, if you are on this site now because you had a question about divorce, make sure to search through this site.  I have written over 800 articles (as of this writing) about divorce.  I have also created over 120 videos and a bunch of Podcasts.

The idea here is to inform the public about how divorce works.  Despite the fact that there is a ton of information on the internet about divorce, it is written in a legalese fashion making it hard to understand.  Divorce attorneys have not figured out that they need to talk about divorce in plain English. Why say the word “Pleading” when you can just say “forms”.  It is much more understandable that way.

A good example of this is with the computer guy that was just at my office to “network” my computers.  I knew what that meant, but why not just say “connect the two computers together” so they can talk to each other?  I am sure there are just as many people out there that don’t speak “computer” as there are people who don’t speak “divorce”.

You will have lots of questions about divorce. Feel free to read our blogs and search our divorce information.  There is a lot of information you can learn from our sites.  And as always, you can always call us to get answers and help on divorce.

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

Divorce Process Takes Longer Than Expected | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

One of the most frequently asked questions about the divorce process is, “how long does it take”.  There is really two answers to this.

I used to simply say that the fasted a divorce can be completed is in 6 months.  That is 6 months from the day your spouse is served or files their response, whichever occurs first.  But what this article is about is more related to the process and how long it “really feels” like is it taking.

The reason I am writing this article is because many of my clients say that the process seems like it is taking very long to complete.  The funny thing is that these calls and emails come in after only 30 days have passed since we started the process.

What this tells me is that when going through a divorce, time will really drag on.  It can be an emotional process and people just want it done as fast as possible.  They want this other person out of their life and just move on.

So a lot of my job is trying to express that divorce is a process and it is going to seem like it is taking longer than it really is.  There is nothing I can do about it and there is nothing that will make things go faster.  While it is possible to get all the paperwork out of the way quickly, you will have to wait for the courts approval on the divorce judgment which is taking anywhere from 3 to 6 months to approve these days.

I understand that you are frustrated and the divorce process seems slow.  I write many emails to my clients to try and relax and that it will all be over soon.  Just not as soon as you would have hoped.

So if you are going through the divorce process or getting ready to start, just know that it is a process and takes time.  Our divorce sevice will make the process that much easier, but no matter what happens, the soonest it can be completed is in 6 months.