Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com. In this video, we’re talking about when you’re getting ready to move and you’re getting ready to file for divorce at the same time.

So, when you go to file for divorce, let’s say you live in Valencia, California and you’re going to be moving to say, Van Nays and you’re going to be filing for divorce pretty soon. What I recommend is you should use your new address that you’re going to for your filing of your divorce paperwork if you know you’re going to be going somewhere say, in the next 30 days.

The court’s not going to mail anything to you right away. The 1st time you might get anything in the mail from the court would be probably 60 to 90 days. So, if you’re 30 days out from moving and you have an address, go ahead and use that new address for purposes of your filing of divorce so that way you make sure you get your filing of divorce paperwork in the mail.

Worst case scenario, if you don’t do that, you’ll have to do a change of address with the court and serve the other party, but if you know you’re going to move, like I just had a client call. They were moving from Palmdale to Valencia in the next couple weeks.

I said, let’s just use your Valencia address. It’d be no sense in filing the case with a Palmdale address and then 2 weeks later changing the address with the court. It’s just unnecessary paperwork. Use the address you’re moving to if within the next 30 days.

It’ll spare you from having to change your address with the court in the future. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Give us a call if you have any questions. We handle divorce cases throughout California. Talk to you soon.

There are only 2 ways your California divorce will finalize. You either come to an agreement with your spouse and submit a stipulated (Agreed upon) divorce or you go to trial.

To come to an agreement without trial can be as simple as doing your own divorce, using a third party divorce document preparation service like ours or mediation to obtain assistance with coming to an agreement.

However if you are unable to come to an agreement, then your only option is to go to trial. But, to go to trial takes several steps and the first step is to file the Request For Trial Setting.

But the questions is, “when should you file the Request For Trial Setting”?

In my opinion the second you know you are not going to be able to ever come to an agreement you should file the request for trial setting FAM-014.

Let me give you an example.

I have a client who was served divorce papers. He came to us for assistance with filing his Response. Now, whether we are mediating the case and assisting both parties or not, the first thing I ask people is if there is a chance that they will come to an agreement.

If the answer is “Yes” then we work to assist both parties in working towards an agreement. If the answer is “no” then we will usually recommend that the request for trial setting be filed at the same time as the Response.

Here is the rationale. When you file for divorce, the next step is for the Respondent to file a Response within the 30 days. (this is not always necessary if in agreement – call me for questions on how we save you money on court fees). Once you file the Response, guess what the court does? Nothing! So all you have is a Petition filed for divorce and a Response filed.

People think at this point that the court is going to get involved and start helping them by setting hearings on their own. While some courts in California do have some hearings they will set, most do not.

So what happens is, is your case just sits with the court with no court involvement until you ask them to. This is what the request for trial setting does. It is basically you telling the court that you cannot come to an agreement and you need to get into the court system to start moving your way towards trial.

There are several steps prior to you actually going to trial, and it is very likely you will come to an agreement in some other way, other than trial, but to file the request for trial setting is the first step to get you there.

Child Support : How To Modify Child Support In California By Agreement

Whenever I get a call from someone who wants to modify child support as part of their California divorce case, I always first start out by asking if their spouse would be in agreement to the modification.

The reason I do this is because there is a very simple way of modifying child support in your California divorce case if you can come to an agreement. This is called filing a Stipulation & Order to modify child support.

Yes, it can be as simple as filing an agreement with the court known as a Stipulation which simply means “agreement”.

It seems people are not familiar with this process and is why I am writing about it today. When most people call about modifying child support the first thing they are talking about is “going to court” by filing a Request For Order which is a motion you file with the court to obtain a hearing to have a judge make a decision on the modification.

So I always ask our clients if they might be able to come to an agreement.

We start by running the numbers through the dissomaster program the court uses to determine child support. I then ask the parties to review the calculation so they can see what the new child support numbers look like.

If the parties can agree on a new child support amount, we simply draft the stipulation, the parties sign it and then we submit it to court for the judge to sign. The stipulations to modify child support will become the new order and supersedes the previous order or judgment in your divorce case.

Of course, you need to make sure to also change or modify your income withholding order as well if that has been filed and served on your employer. If an income withholding order (FL-195) has been filed, we will file both the stipulation to modify child support and the modification of the income withholding order at the same time to speed things up.

If you need assistance with modifying your child support give me a call so we can run the numbers to see what the new child support amount would be. If you and your spouse can come to an agreement on the new amount of child support we will draft the child support modification stipulation.

If you guys do not come to an agreement, we can also help you file a Request For Order to modify child support based upon a change in circumstances which is usually something to do with a chance in income of one of the parties or change in custody and visitation time that would effect the amount of child support to be paid or received.

FL-150 Instructions : When You Need To File The Income & Expense Declaration

If you are going through an amicable divorce in California your divorce will be more about paperwork and procedures rather than about a contested divorce with court and trials.

To that end, we discuss all matters of divorce as it relates to exactly that; the divorce paperwork and how to navigate the court procedure during your divorce in California.

When it comes to the FL-150 Instructions for the Income and Expense Declaration there are times when you need to file it with the court and then there are times you do not.

Why do we make this distinction? Basically, when we are helping our clients through an amicable divorce in California, protecting our clients privacy and information is important, especially in this world we live in where identity theft is so rampant.

So why would you want to provide the court an income and expense declaration and file it thus making it public record.

All your finances are laid out on the income and expense declaration. Everything from where you work to how much you make to how you file your taxes. Not to mention an entire list of all your expenses. To me, this information is personal and not something I want as pubic record if I can avoid it.

So when do you and when do you not have to file the income and expense declaration. And, to be clear, you always need to follow the disclosure requirements by completing the income and expense declaration, we are talking about when you have to actually file it.

Here is a video that discusses when you do and don’t need to file your income and expense declaration.

When You Need To File An FL-150 Income & Expense Declaration:

1. When there are minor children involved – The courts require an income and expense declaration to be file when there are minor children involved. This is because they want to verify the income of the parties to ensure that your child support order meets California’s minimum guideline amount for child support. This applies to default and default with agreement type divorce cases. (See below for exception to this rule)
2. True Default divorce case – If you have a true default divorce case you need to file your income and expense declaration. A true default divorce case is one where your spouse is not participating at all. Not responding (uncontested) and not going to sign an agreement (default with agreement) You need to file your income and expense declaration when you have a true default also known as a default without an agreement.

When You Don’t Need To File An FL-150 Income & Expense Declaration:

1. (exception to # 1 above) – If you have minor children and you have an uncontested divorce case, you do not need to file your income and expense declaration. Now, I am talking about an uncontested divorce in a procedural context. What I mean by uncontested divorce is this. One of the parties have filed a petition and the other party has filed a Response. That is the true definition of “uncontested” as a procedural definition.
2. If you do not have minor children – If no minor children are involved, you do not need to file your FL-150 income and expense declaration. It does not matter if your case is uncontested (response filed) or you have a default with agreement type divorce case.

Remember, we are talking about an amicable divorce in California and discussing procedural aspects here. Non of this will apply if you have a contested case where attorneys are involved or you are going to hearings or to trial. In these cases you will likely be filing your income and expense declaration for a variety of reasons and possibly multiple times.

If you are going through a divorce in California and need assistance, we do offer a full service divorce solution throughout California.

This is a quick follow up video and article about filing of the proof of service of summons for your California divorce.

In the last article I was discussing the fact that there are only a few more days to file your California divorce case this year to have it finalize in 2017.  I had a lot of questions come in about this.

Specifically, one question stood out. “If I file my California divorce papers, and serve my spouse, either by personal service or by notice and acknowledgment of receipt, do I have to have that proof of service filed in that same time frame or can it be filed after?”

It was a good questions because she was asking if she files her divorce case say on June 26th and then serves him on June 29th, but then files the proof of service on July 3rd or somewhere after the last possible date of service to have divorce finalized in 2017, will it still count.

The answer is “yes”. You can serve your spouse prior to the end of June and file the proof of service after the end of June and still have your California divorce finalized by the end of the year.

It is the date of actual service of the divorce summons and petition that counts, not when the actual proof of service is filed with the court.

There is a lot of discussion surrounding the importance of the date of separation and we’ll discuss a few here.  However, keep in mind that the date of separation is not so important when you are going through an amicable California Divorce. I’ll explain below.

The date of separation you use is essentially the line in the sand between what is considered “Community Property” and what is considered “Separate Property”. In laymen’s terms (remember we are not attorneys) anything acquired before the date of marriage and after the date of separation is considered Separate property while anything you acquire during the marriage is considered Community property, with some exceptions such as inheritance and the sort. Here is a good article that goes into further detail.

The focus of the article is to explain how it works when your case is amicable. You see in contested divorce cases where everyone is fighting over everything, the date of separation can be very important for division of property and for such things as how long you may expect to pay for spousal support.

The date of separation, if your case is amicable, may not play such a big role in your divorce. Let me explain. If you and your spouse are in agreement to the terms of your divorce, the date of separation will not play much of a role. In contested cases, the parties use the date of separation to determine what is and what isn’t community property as well as what their values are.

This is still true in amicable divorce cases, but in some cases is just doesn’t matter.

For instance, I just got of the phone with a new client. They have only been married 2 years and per him, technically have been separated for more than a year (but not living apart – still living together) and the question to me was, “which date of separation should I use?” I replied by asking, “will the nature of your agreement change?” His answer was, “no”.

So what I told him is that since the nature of their agreement won’t change, why risk it and claim or state a date of separation of a year ago when it will not change what you are agreeing to. I told him all that would happen, possibly, is that the other spouse get’s upset and asks why he is using a date of separation from a year ago when they are still living together.

And by the way, still living together does not mean you cannot file for divorce or use a date of separation months in the past, even if still living together. Read this article here for more information about filing for divorce when still living together. Many of my clients are still living together at the outset of the divorce process.