How To Prepare Settlement Agreement In Summary Divorce | Santa Clarita

I have been working with a client lately who we are preparing a summary divorce for.  If you are unfamiliar with a Summary divorce, it basically is a process that is simpler and has less paperwork.  Unfortunately, there are many restrictions for using the summary divorce, thus not many people can use it.

When you prepare a settlement agreement for a summary divorce, you are essentially telling the court who is getting what community property and who is getting what community debts.  That is generally not an issue as this is pretty easy to understand.  In fact, the court even has a template of how the settlement agreement should read when prepared for a summary divorce.

One area where I did see where people will run into trouble is in regards to the spousal support section on the summary divorce settlement agreement.

When you file a summary divorce, one of the restrictions is that neither party can request spousal support and you have to waive spousal support forever.

The property settlement agreement the court says is okay to use, does not have the required language to waive spousal support.  The court’s version only says, “Each of us waives any claim for spousal support now and for all time”.  The problem with this language is that it does not address the courts jurisdiction over spousal support.

I had a client have their divorce judgment rejected because the spousal support section did not contain the following words. “The court terminates jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support”.  So I don’t know if the court is aware of this issue or not, but I made sure to also include this language.

The courts instructions on completing the summary divorce settlement agreement is a little unclear and can set people up for failure.  If you think you qualify for a summary divorce, please give us a call and we would be happy to prepare it for you.