Default California Divorce Make Sure To Request What You Want In The Petition
If you watch our videos, you know we talk a lot about the default divorce process and quickly this is where you file for divorce and the other party doesn’t respond either unintentionally or on purpose and you’re going to complete a default style of case.
One thing to keep in mind is when you fill out your petition, now if you haven’t started the process or you’ve already started the process, this is form FL-100.
The petition basically lets your spouse know what your requests are, what you’re requesting in the divorce and also let the courts know what you’re requesting and I want to talk about why it’s important to place the correct request that you want on the petition, specifically in default style of cases.
On the petition, you’re going to state some statistical information, date of marriage, date of separation. You’re going to list the children’s information if you have kids. You’re going to list who and how child custody is going to be, whether it’s going to be full physical, full legal or joint and so forth.
Specifically regarding that, if you file the petition and let’s say you put joint physical and joint legal custody on the petition, you file it and you serve them, thirty days goes by and they don’t respond and now you’re going to file a default.
You can only ask for what you put in the petition and here’s the idea.
If the other party doesn’t want to contest in anything you requested like basically, I’m fine with what you’ve put on here so why do I need to respond, that’s their option.
So, when you go to file your divorce papers, your final agreement or your final judgment as a default. The only thing you can ask for is what you put in the petition. For example;
If you put joint, physical joint legal on the petition and then you go and file your default and you ask for full legal and full physical custody.
The courts are going to reject your judgment because you asked for more than or something different than what you put on the petition and essentially it wouldn’t be fair to the other party if you let him or her know, hey, I want to have a joint custody and then when they don’t respond, kind of a sneaky way go back and say I want full custody.
The courts won’t allow that because if he knew or she knew you want full custody perhaps they would have responded and said no, I don’t agree with that.
That’s the basis of how that works.
Number one, make sure you ask for what you want, even if you think, oh I think he’ll want joint. Put on the petition what you want, that way of there is a default. You can get what you want.
If you kind of go down the middle of the road and say well I think he’ll want this, I think he’ll want that and then there’s no response. You’re going to have to do exactly what you put on the petition. So make sure that is what you want.
Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.
We can help you with your divorce anywhere in California. Make sure to check out our website, we have hundreds of videos, pod casts, tutorials, you can even find us on iTunes at divorce master radio. Give me a call, I’d be happy to give you a free consultation over the phone. 661-281-0266.
