Santa Clarita Divorce : Do I Have To Be Separated Before Filing For Divorce : Divorce 661

Santa Clarita Divorce : Do I Have To Be Separated Before Filing For Divorce : Divorce 661

When you call to speak to me about using our services for your Santa Clarita Divorce, one of the questions I will ask you is, “if your are still living together or if you have separated already”.  For those that say they are already living apart will often say, “we are separated, but not legally”.

This is an area which causes a lot of confusion for people. They think either one of two things. First, they think that they have to be physically separated for it to count as a separation. Second, they think they have to become legally separated first as a condition before filing for divorce.

So let’s discuss these two issues.

Do I Have To Be Separated Before Filing For Divorce?

The answer is NO. While in some States, you have to by physically separated, in California, you do not need to be physically separated for any specific period of time. In fact, you do not have to be separated at all prior to filing your Santa Clarita Divorce.  If you are not physically separated you will simply use the date you are filing your Santa Clarita divorce as the date of separation.

Do You Have To Be Legally Separated To File For Divorce?

Again, NO! There are people that believe that they have to first file for Legal Separation first, before they can file for divorce.  This is not the case. You don’t file for legal separation and then file for divorce. I have had people do that before contacting our Santa Clarita Divorce service simply because they thought you had to first file for legal separation.

If you find yourself in the situation where you already filed for legal separation and now realize you want to divorce, there are two situations you may find yourself in.

  1. Filed For legal separation, but case not finalized – There is good news here. If you filed for legal separation and your case is not finalized and judgement has not been entered, you can filed an amended Petition and request your case become a divorce. This is good because you won’t have to file a new divorce case with the court and have to pay the court fees again.
  2. Filed for legal Separation and case IS finalized – If you filed for legal separation and your legal separation case has already finalized, you can still obviously get divorced, but you will have to start a new case. The good news is that you won’t have to revisit all the issues related to custody and property because that would have all been handled in the legal separation case, but you will have to pay the court fees and start a new case altogether.

Santa Clarita Divorce : Common Mistakes When Filing Your Santa Clarita Divorce : Divorce 661

Santa Clarita Divorce : Common Mistakes When Filing Your Santa Clarita Divorce

I see several issues that continue to come up with people trying to file their own Santa Clarita Divorce. (Video at bottom)

Common Mistakes When Filing Your Santa Clarita Divorce

1.  Names Must Match On Summons & Petition – Using a different version of your name on the Divorce Summons & Petition. The names your use on your summons must match that on the petition. So, for instance. If you use Tim Blankenship on the Summons, use Tim Blankenship on the Petition.

What we see people doing, who are trying to do their own Santa Clarita Divorce is use different variants of their name throughout their divorce paperwork.  Here is an example. They start with Tim Blankenship and then in some places write, Tim S. Blankenship and in others Timothy Blankenship. This usually happens when people are filling out the divorce paperwork by hand or typing it into fillable forms.

2.  Not Using A Date Of Separation – Another issues I see is that people doing their own Santa Clarita Divorce is putting down a date of marriage, but not putting down the date of separation. This is cause for your divorce case to be rejected.

You need to have a date of separation on your divorce petition. “But Tim, we are still living together and not legally separated!” Doesn’t matter, you need to have a date of separation.  In fact, most of my clients are still living together at the time of filing for divorce and there is no requirement that you actually be separated prior to filing for divorce as it is in some states.

Here are some examples of what you can use as the date of separation for your Santa Clarita Divorce. (And yes, you can use a date in the past). You can use the day you discussed with your spouse that you wanted a divorce. You can use a day that you started sleeping on the couch. You can use a date of incident such as when your spouse perhaps did something that caused you wanting a divorce. If nothing else makes sense, then we just use the date of the filing of your divorce as your date of separation.

3.  Requesting Your Name Changed On The Divorce Petition – Okay, I get asked all the time, “can i choose a name” where is asks if you want to restore your former name.  The answer is no. As part of the divorce, you can only revert back to your former, maiden name.

The reason is that if you just choose any old name, and when you go to say Social Security or the DMV, they are going to check that it is, in fact, your former maiden name. The only way to choose a name of your choice is to file a legal name change with the court.

4.  Using An Address For You Minor Children Outside of California – This does not happen too often, but often enough to address it. If you have children, you need to also file a form called a UCCJEA which is form FL-105. The courts want to know where your children have lived for the last 5 years. You children have to be living in California in order for the state to have jurisdiction to make orders for child custody.

If you state that your children are living out of state, you will not be able to have custody orders in California. If you find yourself in this situation, even if you list your children on the divorce petition and then try to turn in your divorce judgment to the court, they will reject your judgment and tell you that the court does not have the jurisdiction to make orders for child custody and that you need to remove the custody portion from your judgment. This is a problem if you need custody orders as part of your Santa Clarita Divorce.

If you need assistance with your Santa Clarita divorce make sure to give us a call. We have local offices right here in Santa Clarita and can assist you with finalizing your divorce.