Baby Boomers Divorce Rate Now 25%

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

A Recent article in the Los Angeles Times now estimates that the baby boomer generation divorce rate is now at 25%, up from 10%.

What is being called a “Gray Divorce Boom” is being led by baby boomers once again. Most of us are keenly aware of how this huge population of people have effected the economy throughout history.

Now they are creating a boom in divorce.

Working with people who are going through divorce everyday, I can attest that we get our fair share of baby boomers coming through our doors. In fact, I would say it represents closer to 40% of our clients, not just 25%.

But what explains this increase in this older folks getting divorced? Is it the change in how we look at divorce overall as a culture?

I am in my 40's and my parents never divorced. My friends parents did not divorce, at least that i can recall. So divorce was just something that was not as prevalent as it is today. It has become the, “well, everyone else is doing it” scene.

We never make is our business why someone decides to get divorced. Getting divorced is a personal decision and only you know what is best. We are not here to judge, rather if you have made the decision to get divorced, we simply want to make the divorce process as simple and smooth as possible.

If you are a baby boomer or fall in this “gray divorce boom” you are obviously not alone. The divorce rate is climbing every year and is impacting all ages and generations.

For there to be this drastic of an uptick in divorce, one must conclude that there has been a dramatic shift in how our culture looks at divorce and marriage. Perhaps folks stayed in marriages due to social pressures as getting divorced in the past was not as prevalent.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firms specializing in divorce. We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all of Los Angeles County.

How Can I Determine If Spouse Filed For Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I was asked this question over the weekend.  “How can I determine if my spouse has filed for divorce?” If you have not been served divorce papers yet, how do you know if a divorce case has been filed.  I thought this was a good question.

There are a couple of reasons why someone would want to find out if their spouse had filed for divorce.  Perhaps, your spouse has indicated that they filed or are going to file, but you have not been served any divorce papers yet.  You might be feeling that they are delaying and you plan on filing if they have not yet.

Another reason you might be trying to see if your spouse filed for divorce is out of plain curiosity.  Perhaps the two of you have been having disputes and you have a feeling that your spouse filed for divorce, but your not sure.

Regardless of your reasons for wanting to determine if your spouse filed for divorce, there is only one way to do this.

There is no public database that you can access from your home computer that will let you know if your spouse has filed for divorce.  The only way to check from home is if you have a case number.  Obviously, we do not have a case number in this scenario.

So what you would have to do then i go down to the actual courthouse.  You can go to the local courthouse and have the clerk search by name and date of birth for your name or your spouses name to see if they have filed for divorce.

In Los Angeles County, the family law clerks office has a computer available for public use where you can access the files and search for yourself.

Once you locate the name you are looking for, you can see what the case number is.  Once you have the case number you can use that to access the online case summary off the court website from any computer.

Keep in mind that there is a delay from the time the case is filed until the time it shows up in the courts computer system.

 

More California Divorce Cases Being Rejected

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are starting to see more divorce cases in California being rejected by the courts. This is especially true in Los Angeles County.

The divorce courts use a checklist of items they can reject your case for and is 3 pages long. We are actually considering preparing a video on each of the reasons your case can be rejected so you can avoid having this happen to you or fix it if it has.

Sometimes the divorce cases are rejected for good cause. Meaning you forgot to include a necessary page or used the wrong language or forgot to check mark a box you were supposed to.

But now, we are seeing more random reasons for rejection. Most recently we had a case rejected and the clerk requested that the papers be collated. Collated? Really?

On another case, the case was rejected because the documents were not in the correct order. You will note that the court does not tell anyone what order the forms should be in. And in fact, the order can vary depending on who is reviewing the judgments.

I have some inside knowledge of how these divorce judgments are reviewed, because i am often the one down at court reviewing them. I have been an intern and volunteer my time at the courts to make sure i am always up to date with any changes.

I can tell you that the issue with collating and putting the judgment in a certain order is something new.

I honestly believe that the courts are so overwhelmed that they are just looking for any reason to reject your judgment. If the judgment is submitted in an unorganized fashion, they will just reject it instead of reorganizing it for you.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce. We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts in Los Angeles, California.

 

Getting Couples To Work Together During Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

One of the most important aspects of my business is to help divorcing couples work together. Impossible? No. It just takes a little work on everyones part.

Case in point. I received a call from new client who lives out of state. He is in the military and is stationed away from his home town state.

His wife filed for divorce and mailed the divorce documents to him. He read the summons that said he had 30 days to respond and panicked because there was only 4 days left, based upon the date of the court stamp on the forms.

He called a local attorney in Santa Clarita and paid $200 for an over the phone consultation. While he was waiting for his appointment, he was doing some more research online and found our company and gave us a call.

When he called, one of his first concerns was that he needed to respond by the 30 days. But my first issue was in how he was served. He had stated that his wife mailed the forms to him. There is a specific procedure to divorce and mailing the summons and petition does not conform to policy. The first documents served must be personally served in most cases.

Once we discussed that, i pointed out that he had more time because technically he had not been served yet.

But most importantly was to get him and his wife to work together on this as best as possible. It was apparent that they were not communicating too much which can definitely compound the problems.

So what I did was indicate that the best course of action would be to get his wife on board with having me coordinate the events of the divorce so the process can progress smoothly through the court system.

He agreed, and as of this writing, am waiting for his wife to reach out to me. We just spoke yesterday evening, so i am expecting her call today.

The goal here is to work with both spouses, to explain the process and procedure of getting divorced and keep the working together as best as possible.

At the end of the day, he was able to get a refund from the attorney for the consultation he had paid for after realizing he did not need an attorney to get divorced in his case.

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.

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.

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.

On Completing Your Nullity of Marriage In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

On Completing Your Nullity of Marriage In Santa Clarita

We are proud to say that we recently helped a client complete a nullity of their marriage.

To be honest, we were prepared for failure, but were going to give it our best effort and fight. Why do I say this?

Because a nullity of marriage is much different than a divorce. In a divorce, you don’t need a good reason to get divorced. In fact, you don’t need any reason at all. All you need to say is that there are irreconcilable differences, and nobody will ever ask the reason. Sadly, nobody cares.

However, when it comes to a nullity, you do need to have a reason. And it has to be one of a few legal reasons. And you have to prove it to the court by appearing in court yourself to explain why the judge should annul your marriage.

The reason we took this case on is because this client had already spent $25,000 in attorney fees with a law firm who was unable to complete it for them.

You see, when you run out of money and are unable to pay your attorney fees, that attorney that was your advocate and in your corner no longer has your best interest in mind. No money, no representation.

In this particular case, the reason the nullity was requested was because one of the spouses was still legally married at the time of the marriage. This is one of the legal reasons you can use to get a marriage annulled.

Both spouse were in agreement with the nullity and it was a matter of getting the matter heard in front of the judge who has to make the order and sign the judgment saying he approved of the nullity and that there was legal reason to order it.

There was one other issue. The husband was having another child with his new fiancee’ in 4 weeks and wanted his previous marriage dealt with so his new child would be considered his legitimate child.

Because the nullity had to be heard in front of a judge and because the spouses were in agreement, I sent both of them to court on an ex-parte hearing so they could have their case heard.

I was not sure if the judge would hear the case, because ex-parte hearings are supposed to be emergency cases only, but we used the fact that he was having another child as the emergency. I even told my client I was not sure what would happen at the hearing.

Well the starts were aligned that day and the judge heard the matter and ordered the marriage annulled effective immediately. Our client could not have been happier.

It just goes to show that you don’t need an attorney, even for an annulment of marriage. I don’t assume we will be handling many annulments, but wanted to show folks how hard we work to make things go right for our clients.

 

Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Unaffordable For Many In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Unaffordable For Many In Santa Clarita

It’s a fact.  Many people cannot afford the cost of an attorney for their divorce.  Either they don’t have the money or, if they do, are not willing to spend it to get divorced.  That is where our divorce legal document assistance comes into play.

Here is an example of a client that, but for our service, would have been left to figure things out on his own.

A client was recently served with a Request For Order with the mom asking to move away with their child to another state.  He called me to see what we could do for him.  I advised him we would help him prepare a response to the motion along with a declaration, etc.

In his email to me, explaining what he wanted to address on the declaration, he asked me if I thought he would be okay representing himself.  I answered him honestly.  I told him that many people represent themselves.  I told him that because the mom had an attorney, he may be at a disadvantage in his case.

Then I answered his question with a question.  I asked him if he could afford to pay $5,000 to $7,500 for an attorney to prepare his response and represent him at the court hearing.  He replied that he could not afford to pay that much money for an attorney.

And sometimes that is all it comes down to.  Of course, everyone would love to use an attorney for their divorce case if it was affordable.  But it isn’t.  In fact, because attorneys are seeing less and less clients these days, they are actually raising their hourly billing rates to make more off the clients that they do have.

Yes, gone are the days of refinancing our homes to pay for everything.  Cars, toys and even divorce.  Now we feel the pain of that big purchase, going further into debt to pay for the things we don’t really need.

The cost of divorce attorneys in Santa Clarita are unaffordable for many, but there is help out there and we are it.  We are licensed and bonded in the County of Los Angeles to provide legal document assistance.  We specialize in divorce and can provide you with a complete understanding of the divorce process and help you with most family law related matters.  Give us a call for more information.