FL-150 : How To Avoid Filing & Protect My Privacy During California Divorce

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FL-150 : How To Avoid Filing & Protect My Privacy During California Divorce

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. So this videos going to be on how to, how do I want to say this? How to protect your assets. How to give as little information to the courts as possible, let me explain.

When we prepare judgments, when we handle divorce cases we give the courts as little information as possible. Meaning, when we’re listing assets and debts we just name the asset and the last 4 digits of the account.

That’s all we give them. That’s all the courts require, and a lot of people when they do a divorce they’ll put their full name, full account number, full social security number, I mean everything. You’re setting yourself up for identity theft to be honest with you, and have your assets potentially stolen from you.

So protecting people, we do that, but also a lot of people say Tim why do I have to include, or why I do I have to prepare an expense declaration. So if there are children in your marriage, minor children, and you are going through a divorce in California you need to do an income and expense declaration and it needs to be filed with the court.

Now, there is a little loop hole there. If you have an uncontested case where a petition is filed and a response is filed, you do not have to file that income and expense declaration. So a couple of things here. The reason I’m bringing this up is I had a client say Tim we’re in full agreement, why do I need to turn in an income and expense declaration to court?

We wanted to protect our privacy, we don’t want to list our name, where we worked, employers address because potentially that’s public record, which is true. I said the only way to accomplish that, and here’s the trick, the reason for this video. If you want to avoid filing an income and expense declaration for the court have the respondent file a response.

It will make your case uncontested and it while the income and expense is still prepared as a matter of disclosure policy, you don’t have to file it with the court. So we do that now for our clients. We generally will not have them file a response to save them money. It’s one of the tricks we do.

So if you’re going to get divorced call us before you file anything because you don’t have to file a response if you’re in agreement because we can get your through on just one fee and save you money, but in this particular case say Tim how can we avoid filing the income and expense declaration and I said simple, file the response.

All you have to do is pay another 475 dollars. It can protect your identity and in that way you don’t have to file the income and expense with the court. So that’s a little hack for you. If you don’t want to file that just have the response file, have your case be uncontested and you don’t need to file it. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

I hope that was helpful. If you’ d like to schedule a call with me please go to divorce661.com and click on the blue button that says schedule a call with Tim and we can chat and we’d love to help you with your divorce anywhere in California. Talk to you soon and hope you have a great day.

What To Do With Your Home During California Divorce

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What To Do With Your Home During California Divorce

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video we’re talking about how to deal with your family at your home while going through a divorce.

So essentially you have a handful of options when it comes to dealing with your house. Number 1 obviously, the 1st option would be to sell the house. Well normally that might be the easiest way to go if you guys need to split the equity in the property because each of you need some, let’s say getting started money.

Maybe you’re going to buy a new residence and you need some liquid cash to be able to that. That’s number 1 option.

Number 2, one of you could buy the other party out. Now this is possible only in a few occasions, and can address some of the quick issues with what could possibly come up with the buyout. Number 1 is there could be no equity in the home and therefore there’s no way to really refinance the property. Number 2, there might be credit or income issues for qualifying for the other person, for the person keeping the home to qualify for the buyout.

And number 3, it just may not be possible for you guys to come up with the money as a buyout either with a 2nd or something like that. So that option may not be on the table. However, consider the fact that you can is other equity, other assets to offset.

So for example, if there was 100,000 dollars in equity, 50,000 each party, and you guys wanted to do a quote unquote “buyout” for the house it doesn’t have to come from the house necessarily. Maybe there’s 50,000 dollars in another asset, a vehicle, maybe a 401K, maybe a savings account and you use that to offset the difference.

That can be a workable option, and number 3, what we see sometimes is when there are minor children many times one of the spouses prefers to stay in the house for a period of time post divorce. So you get through the divorce process but maybe the kids are 15, 16 or it doesn’t matter age. Maybe you guys agreed to keep the children in the family home with one of the spouses so the kids don’t have the disruption from moving and so forth.

We’ve seen that quite a bit as well. So sell, buyout and, or keep the house. Both of you maintain it. Figure out a way to make it work. Again, we’ve done that plenty of times. Keeping one a spouse and the minor children in the house with a future sale date meaning the parties agree to keep the house until the kids, you know, the last child turns 18 and graduates from high school, something like that.

So that’s kind of your options when it comes to dealing with your house during divorce in California. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Hope this was helpful. If you have any questions feel free to give me a call. The number’s on your screen or you can go to divorce 661.com and schedule a consultation with me directly. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

California Divorce : STRS & PERS Pensions Included In Judgment

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California Divorce : STRS & PERS Pensions Included In Judgment

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com with this video we are talking about if you have a STRS or PERS pension, so we’re talking state teacher retirement system or public employee retirement system pension.

You want to make sure that you do include those on your divorce judgment, whether your case is amicable or not. Let me give you a for instance, many of our clients call us when we are handling their divorce and say they have no assets or debts and when I inquire further they say well we do have assets and debts but they are each in our own names and that’s fine, a lot of people keep their own assets or debts but we still want to include those on the judgment so you guys are protected.

Now, when it comes to certain pensions, in this case we’re talking about STRS and PERS, they are going to require that those assets appears specifically on your divorce decree on your judgment showing that you are receiving 100 percent of your pension, so even if you’re going to say no assets, no debts, at a minimum you need to include that you will be keeping your own STRS and or PERS or vice versa or whatever the case may be because when you go to take your ex spouse off of your, remove them as beneficiaries they’re going to say well show us that you have received or been confirmed in the divorce as your sole and separate property, your STRS and PERS pension.

So the point of this video is make sure you’re including at least those on your judgment, otherwise you’re going to need to file an amended judgment and usually in the form of a stipulation, which we recently had to do for a client who omitted an asset by mistake and when he called STRS they said sorry we can’t confirm this to you, you know we need to have it as part of the divorce decree and so we had to file an stipulation confirming the omitted asset to him as a sole and separate property, fairly easy fix it’s just better to make sure you’re listing your property because had he not listed this or forgot that he omitted it, the PERS and STRS basically said we can’t help you until you get this on there.

The asset was unconfirmed to either party so it kind of left the door open for division of that asset, so it’s just important to make sure you guys are declaring and confirming to each of you your sole and separate property. In this case specifically the STRS and PERS when it comes to pensions.

No Spousal Support But Did You Terminate The Court’s Jurisdiction?

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No Spousal Support But Did You Terminate The Court’s Jurisdiction?

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and this video is about long term, when you’re trying to terminate spouse support on a long term marriage, so I’m going to try and make this brief because it can get quite complex.

In a long term marriage, anything over 10 years, the rule of California is that the court will retain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely, so it means you guys can say no spouse support, zero support order, however the courts will maintain jurisdiction over that, meaning at any time in the future either one of you could go back to court and ask for spouse support if there is a change in circumstances such as a job loss, etcetera.

A lot of people don’t want to leave that door open even though policy is that the courts will maintain jurisdiction indefinitely, a lot of our clients want to terminate jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support even on long term marriages so they can close that door and never have to have that issue of being revisited down the road.

In doing so the parties have to agree to do that, both spouses have to agree. In fact, there is a whole page waiver that says basically for no reason in the future, no matter what happens, you’re waiving your right, and the court no longer has jurisdiction, blah blah blah and you guys are both have to sign and initial that specific waiver language.

So, when people call me and say Tim I tried to do my own divorce and my divorce is being rejected and they’re saying that I can’t terminate spouse support and we had a long term marriage, etcetera, what they are trying to do is a default case. A default is where the other party, the respondent, doesn’t participate at all. So, for a court policy, the courts have to reject your judgment they cannot go against California law and allow you to terminate support on long term marriages except by agreement.

So, we’ve had many people come to us and say Tim, we’re having this problem, we tried to turn our judgment, they’re rejecting because they say we can’t waive it even though I marked terminate jurisdiction on the petition and that’s because they’re trying to do a true default versus a hybrid. A hybrid is a case where, and what’s going on here is people are trying to save on court fees and that’s the same thing we do but what you want to do is a hybrid, which is a default with an agreement as opposed to true default.

Both of those, neither party has to, I’m sorry the respondent doesn’t have to file a response so, you’re the same court fee savings is there but people get confused between a default and a default with agreement. So, if you’re trying to terminate spouse support on a long term marriage and you guys are signing a waiver language then you need to have the other party involved, still don’t have to file a response but then you can terminate support on a long term marriage.

If you’re going, if you have no choice but to do it by default then your only option is going to be mark the reserved jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support on your spouse support order for your judgment. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, hope this was helpful. If you want to schedule a call with me you can go to divorce661.com and you can do that through the blue button that says schedule a call with Tim and if you need my assistance feel free to set that up and I’d be happy to talk to you about helping you.

FL-165 Request To Enter Default Confusions

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FL-165 Request To Enter Default Confusions

Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com here and In this video, I want to help explain further what the FL 165 is, how it works and just some confusions on how that works.

So, a lot of times when you’re going through a divorce, you’re going to get to a point where you file a request to enter default. This will be in a true default case and this will also be in a hybrid case where there’s an agreement but no response.

So, one of the questions I had the other day was Tim, how does it work with the FL 165 and the 30 days and there was 2 different questions, 2 different ways I’m going to answer this, number 1 way was I had the petitioner call me in 1 case and say well my husband hasn’t responded and the 30 days is over, has he lost his rights and no, that’s not the case and the reason being is 30 days is the window but unless a request to enter default is filed the respondent can at any time file the response, even years down the road, as long as the request to enter default is not filed the response can be filed.

So, you don’t automatically lose it, the door doesn’t slam closed after 30 days, the petitioner has to take a particular action and file the request to enter default. Now, let me answer this another way for another client, she said 30 days has gone by, I have filed my request to enter default but it hasn’t been filed yet, can the respondent after 30 days still file the response and again the answer is yes.

So, what happens when you file some paperwork, say your petition or some disclosures, those get filed immediately. They get file stamped and they get filed right away with the court. With the request to enter default that has to go to the judgment clerk in the courtroom so it takes a while, it can take a couple of weeks, even a month to get file.

So, let’s say the 30 days goes by and you want to file the request to enter default and you do, let’s say you submit to court on that 31st day and you’re waiting, 2 weeks goes by, 3 weeks goes by and the respondent files a response even though it’s beyond the 30 days, whoever’s paperwork is filed 1st will win.

So, if the request to enter default gets filed and the respondent files the response, the response will be rejected or not be allowed to be filed, but if the request to enter default has not been filed yet because of court delays, the respondent can still sneak in the response.

Tim Blankenship divorce661.com, if you need help with your divorce anywhere in California feel free to give me a call 661 281 0266. Hope this was helpful, have a great day.

What Name Change Is Possible Through California Divorce Process

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What Name Change Is Possible Through California Divorce Process

Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com in this video we’re talking about how to change your name while going through the divorce in California.

So, when you file your petition there is a box that you can check off that you want to revert back to your former name and I wanted to clarify that you can only go back to your former name.

I get asked a lot, my clients say Tim can I pick a name or can I use my maiden name form 3 marriages ago, which you probably could, but in any other case you cannot, you have to go back to your former name, you cannot pick a name out of a hat or use another families last name and here is the issue.

When you go through a divorce you can get a judgment that says that the respondent or petitioner is having their name reverted back to their former name. Now, you could technically put any name down there but where you’ll get into trouble is when you go to say Social Security or DMV, they’re going to verify that, that was in fact your maiden name or previous name and if it’s not it’s going to be invalid and it’s not going to help you what so ever.

So, when filing the petition and then your judgment make sure that they name that you’re requesting to be reverted back to is your former name and your maiden name so when you go to Social Security you can successfully have your name reverted back.

If you want to do a regular name change, where you what to change your name entirely you have to go through a name change petition filing outside the scope of the divorce. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, hope you’re having a great day. Call me for any questions for divorce in California 661 281 0266 and have a great day.

Santa Clarita Mediation : Is Mediation Required For Divorce?

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Santa Clarita Mediation : Is Mediation Required For Divorce?

Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com today we’re talking a little bit more about mediation. Many people are under the wrong conclusion that mediation is required when going through a divorce in Santa Clarita.

Many times, people will call me and say they are looking for a divorce mediator, feeling that they need to mediate their divorce case or have some 3rd party involved in order to finalize their case and that is not necessary.

So, when people call me and say Tim, we’re looking for a mediator, do you do mediation, I ask them well do you guys have issues that you need to sit down with some 3rd party and help you work out your differences and many times the answer is no and I say well you don’t need a mediator, you simply need someone like myself to help interface with the courts, do all the paperwork and draft all of the paperwork correctly so we can get your divorced finalized and usually their comment is well I thought we had to go down to court, meet with a mediator or have someone draft our documents.

No, the people that go through our service, unless we through the process we realize they’re having difficulties where we’ll refer them out to mediation to solve a particular issue or issues, most of my clients do not need any mediation what so ever if they are in a full agreement. So, mediation is not required in divorce in California if you are in agreement, you will not go to court, court is also not mandatory.

We would do all the interface for the court filings and any time that documents need to be filed with the court we take care of that, so if you use our service not only will you not need mediation, unless you need to get some issues resolved, nor will you go to court, we handle all of that for you.

So, I just wanted to clear that up because I do get a lot of calls from people thinking they need to have a mediator or that they have to go to court. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, have a great day and thanks for watching.

If you need any assistance with your divorce anywhere in California give us a call 661 281 0266. Thanks for watching.

Serving California Divorce Petition Via Substituted Service

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How To Serve California Divorce Petition By Substituted Service

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com with today’s divorce661 tip of the day and today we’re talking about serving divorce papers obviously.

So, there are multiple ways of doing it, personal service, there’s a notice of acknowledgment receipt that can be signed by the other party, also what we’re talking about specifically today is what’s called the substituted service.

So real quick, when one party cannot be served, an example would be let’s say you sent process servers to the house where the party lives multiple times and they’re just not there but there happens to be another adult in the home, you can with certain restrictions and you have to meet certain criteria you can what’s called sub-service or substitute serve the person of the house.

So, maybe your spouse lives with a parent or maybe there’s a relative in the home or something like that, you can sub serve that other party, not the actual person being served, again only in certain circumstances, so I just wanted to let you know there is a way if you’re unable to serve the person, for whatever reason, they’re either avoiding service or they’re never there but it is known that they do live there you can have them substituted served by serving another person but again, it’s a little bit tricking and only in certain circumstances can you do that.

So, if you need help with that you definitely want to have a professional assist you with that. So, hope this was helpful with today’s divorce661 tip of the day. Have a great day.

Santa Clarita Divorce : Quick & Cheap Divorce

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Santa Clarita Divorce : Quick & Cheap Divorce

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and today we’re answering the question how to I get a cheap quick divorce in California?

Okay, so let’s talk about the speed, let’s talk about the quickness, 1st of all there is nothing you can do to circumvent the fact that divorce takes 6 months in California, 6 months before your divorce will be finalized, it doesn’t mean it’s going to take 6 months of say working with me to get your divorce done, that’s not the case.

Now let me answer the other question of the quickness, we can get your paperwork done in a matter of hours, so if you come to me with all of your agreements I can draft your summons, petition all the way through your judgment, all the procedural forms, have all of the paperwork done, to you for signatures, you guys sign it, send it back and you’re done with me.

So that’s quick as far as I’m concerned, we can have everything done if you have all of your agreements in place, so quick on our end, not so quick on the courts end, 6 months before you’ll be officially divorced in the best of circumstances if it’s completely amicable.

The cheap part of it I can certainly help you with, we are what’s called legal document assistants, we deal with amicable divorce cases or folks who are representing themselves and we can assist you on a flat fee basis, our prices start at $699 dollars for the service itself and it kind of goes up based on the complexity and if there are children and assets and debts and so forth but definitely in comparison to costs of an attorney we’re going to be that cheap option for you.

We do service all the courts in California, so feel free to give me a call. I’d be happy to provide you with a free phone consultation and let you know more about our services and how we can help you, even can safe you some money on court fees, so just make sure to give me a call 661 281 0266, the number is on your screen or go to divorce661.com for more information.

How To Get A Divorce In Santa Clarita Without A Lawyer

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How To Get A Divorce In Santa Clarita Without A Lawyer

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and in this video, we’re going to talk about how to get a divorce in Santa Clarita without a lawyer.

What many people don’t know is that a lawyer is not required in Santa Clarita to get through the divorce process, you can go through self represented known as in pro per and finalize your case on your own, you don’t need any assistance necessarily to do this and many people represent themselves throughout their divorce case.

In fact, if you’re working with a service like ours you’re still considered unrepresented, we do not represent either side, we do legal document preparation and assist you with getting through the divorce without attorneys and therefore much more cost effective.

I’m assuming that you’re looking at getting through a divorce without an attorney is because you don’t want to have the high costs, retainers in Santa Clarita start at 5,000 dollars in most cases, even for an uncontested case.

I mean you might find someone for $3,500 but that’s kind of iffy and that’s kind of, we’re not seeing that anymore, again our fees start at $699 so if you’re looking at going through a divorce without a lawyer but you don’t want to necessarily do it yourself, a service like ours would be perfect, both cost effective and helping you and your spouse get through your amicable divorce anywhere in Santa Clarita, as we do work with all of the courts.

So, feel free to give me a call, I’d be happy to talk to you more about how to get through the Santa Clarita divorce process without a lawyer. All of our clients obviously do that and we handle 20 to 30 divorce cases a month throughout California.

So, if you need some assistance please give me a call 661 281 0266 or you can actually book a consultation online at divorce661.com. Hope this was helpful and have a great day.