To be sure, getting a divorce is going to change your life one way or another and by how much will vary from person to person. But with change, comes fear. Fear of the unknown mostly. Fear of change. But don’t let fear overpower you or cause you to make rash decisions. Here is where I am going with on this.
When I was talking to you about not listening to your friends and to come to your own conclusions, I was referring to people who will either purposely or with the best of intensions, cause a certain level of fear in you. Specifically by stating that if you don’t get an attorney that you will get screwed in your divorce. I am using that language purposely, because that is usually how I hear it being stated by my clients so perhaps this terminology rings true for you too.

I am also talking about the fear attorneys will try to instill in you as well with similar rhetoric. Let me tell you how this works. You decide you want to speak to an attorney about your divorce. Let’s say you have some questions, which is fine. What most attorneys will do is tell you all the bad things that can happen to you if you don’t hire an attorney and why you need to retain them now to “protect your rights”.

You want to know why attorneys say this? Because they have to. They have to tell you all this scary stuff because it is their job to “fight for your rights”. It is their job to get you the “best deal” in your divorce. It is not that they are bad, necessarily, just that the very nature of having an attorney puts you in an adversarial position with your spouse. I mean it is called, “The Adversarial System”. I don’t want to go to far with this conversation because I have dedicated an entire chapter to this.

What I wanted you to get out of this chapter is that there is a better way. You don’t have to go down the path of the adversarial system. You don’t have to go to court, you don’t have to go to trial, you don’t even need to see a courtroom. I laugh to myself sometimes because when people call me they frequently will ask, “What would a judge say about (blank)”. And my answer is always the same.

No judge is ever going to make a decision about anything if you guys can work out your agreements outside of court. The only people who ever see a judge are the ones that could not figure it out by themselves and needed to have a judge to decide. There is a big misconception that to get divorced that you need to go in front of a judge for them to make a decision.

This is so far from the truth. My clients who use our service and ultimately come to an agreement will never set foot in court. My office deals directly with the spouses to come to an agreement and document that agreement. This turns the divorce process into more of simply drafting agreements and submitting them to the court for approval.

The Court does not look at your agreements to see if anything is fair or even equal. All they care is to make sure that the children are being taken care of and that procedure was followed property and the divorce paperwork done correctly. That’s it.

Here is how you get rid of fear about divorce and the divorce process. Get educated. You are taking a great first step here by reading this book. You can also go to my website at www.divorce661.com and read the over 2,000 articles, videos and podcasts I have produced on the topic of divorce in California.

You can also just pick up the phone and call 661-281-0266 for a free phone consultation where I can learn about your situation, discuss if our services are a good fit for you and answer any questions you have about divorce and the divorce process.

What To Say After Telling Your Spouse You Want A Divorce

From Tim’s Book, “Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney”

Here is what I tell my clients. Once you have told your spouse you want a divorce, explain to them that you want to try to figure out everything without having to hire an attorney. Tell them that you don’t want to spend a ton of money on your divorce and that you want to try and work it out amicably.

If you guys can at least agree to not use attorneys, you have a good chance of getting through the divorce process on your own with a non-attorney legal service provider like ours.

I then tell them, when they are ready, to make sure that their spouse is directed to our website or to call me so I can have a discussion with them to try to explain the process. I want them to know we are a neutral third party, not here to take sides or represent either party, rather just here to help facilitate the divorce process the best we can. The biggest thing I can help with this at this moment is to put the other spouse’s concerns at ease as quickly as possible.

Don’t Listen To Your Friends

You remember the last time you purchased a car? Then all of a sudden you start seeing that car everywhere? In a similar fashion, once you start going through the divorce process you will undoubtedly start talking about it and whether you want it or not, your friends, relatives and even strangers will start to give you advice and commentary.

Anything from, “you need an attorney” to “I got screwed in my divorce”. People have their opinions and experiences with divorce, but their negative experiences is not what you have to go through.

You and your spouse are in control of the outcome of your divorce. How it starts and how it ends. In my experience, speaking to your friends about your divorce or asking them for advice is generally a bad idea. Nothing ever comes good of it and everything they are telling you is filtered by them.

We all rely on friends and family when going through times like these, so I can’t expect you to listen to me, a stranger, so I will leave you with something you hopefully follow. Take what your friends say with a grain of salt. Listen to them, but then come to your own conclusions.

How & When To Tell Your Spouse You Want A Divorce

From Tim’s Book “Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney”

This is going to be different for everyone of course, but I could probably provide you a little help here seeing as I deal with so many people going through divorce. I think the “How” and “When” you tell your spouse can really make a difference on how well your divorce case ultimately plays out.

How are you going to tell your spouse you want a divorce? Remember here that we are talking about folks trying to go through an amicable divorce and we are trying to set up a situation where the environment is best suited for having the conversation.

I would suggest that you plan this out so that you are not placed in a situation where you get upset at your spouse and just blurt it out, “I want a divorce!” We want to do this amicably, so even if there is a lot of upset and emotion you can handle this as a business decision so both of you can deal with what’s about to happen.

Remember, as I stated previously, (and I am talking to you women right now) that your husband may have absolutely no idea you are about to drop this on him, so the how and the when are going to really matter. Give it some thought and think about how your week normally happens.

Think about your schedule, when the kids are home or at practice, etc. Make sure to be in a place that is quiet and that you have ample time to discuss as much as possible and that you don’t have to run out for some errand in 10 minutes, interrupting the conversation. You are going to want to get this out in a single conversation.

Not everything will be discussed here of course, but you want to make sure your spouse fully understands that you are not bringing this up as casual conversation, but that this is really happening.

Now for the when. I think I will answer this in two ways. “When” as in when you should tell them after you have made the decision that you want to get a divorce and, “When” as in what part of the hour, day or week do you tell them.

When clients call us for our divorce service, many have already discussed getting a divorce with their spouse, but many others have not and they will ask me what I think is the best time to tell their spouse. I tell them that it is better to talk to their spouse about wanting a divorce before any actual court documents start flying around. I think the conversation should come first and the actual filing of divorce papers should come after.

So what I am recommending is that when you talk to your spouse that you are not there to hand them any type of divorce papers. It will be overwhelming enough to have the conversation and you are going to want to focus on just the conversation and not be distracted by court documents.

I recommend telling your spouse soon after you have made the decision that you absolutely want to get divorced. When you know for certain that you want a divorce, that is the time to tell them. Here is what you have to watch out for if you hold off or wait. Y

ou are going to have this thought of having to tell them on your mind constantly until you tell them. It will consume you and you will be thinking about it all day and night and it will effect you. The other thing you need to be mindful of is that you may start to look for things they are doing wrong more often or frequently, in more of a coping method for you to make them out to be the bad person so it makes it easier for you to break the news.

While this may work in helping make them the bad person, it will certainly effect the delivery of the news to them. You may have this sick feeling in your stomach as you wait to tell them. The longer you wait the more you will feel this sick feeling. I can tell you from experience that my clients feel a sense of relief once their feelings are out in the open and they have discussed this with their spouse.

The other “when” is time of the hour, day or week. Think of your normal schedule and try to find the right time. It might be better to wait until your spouse has unwound from work for a while, but before they start into their glass of wine or beer.

This discussion is best done sober, and that goes for both of you. If you are going to have a cocktail, have it after you guys have talked. Do you tell them on a weekend or weekday? Is it better that you have the discussion on a weekday where at least during the day you are not together and risk the chances of fighting?

Maybe right after discussing this it is best to have a little space between you. Or maybe you would rather discuss this on the weekend where you do have additional time to talk and discuss the details of the divorce. You will have to make a judgment call.

Now, when you have figured out when you are going to talk to your spouse, what words are you going to use? How are you going to start the conversation? My recommendation is to think of it as firing an employee. I am not trying to diminish the circumstances, just trying to put this in perspective of the type of tone you need to have.

When you are going to fire an employee, you don’t start talking about all the things they have done and provide reasons and examples or apologize or provide excuses. You just say, “you’re fired” or “I have to let you go”. I prefer the latter of those examples. The divorce equivalent of those phrases is, “I want a divorce” and “I can’t be married to you anymore”. Again, I like the second one better than the first.

The direct route is going to serve you well in this situation and you need to get right to the point. “I wanted to speak to you because I need to tell you that I can’t be married to you anymore”.

This is chapter 1 of Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney – One Paralegal’s Take On Divorce, Responsibility, And Compromise

CHAPTER 1 – Divorce – An Epidemic

Divorce is everywhere, all around us. Our friends are getting divorced, our parents are getting divorced, our children are getting divorced. My children’s friends parents all seem to be divorced. My divorce paralegal firm handles approximately 30 divorce cases every month and we are just one company in one town in America.

The phone literally rings off the hook each and every day and I keep thinking to myself, “Isn’t everyone already divorced yet?” Indeed, good for business, but sad to see so many people going through this.

While I wish I had a cure for divorce, I will just have to continue feeling good about providing a divorce solution to people that makes going through divorce a much more comfortable experience.

What Is The Divorce Rate?

There is much debate on this topic. If you were to do a Google search, you would come across numerous articles that say the divorce rate is around the 40% to 50% mark. Honestly, the actual rate at which people are divorcing is not important except to show that it is pretty high.

From personal experience, all I can say is that there is a lot of divorce going on. And don’t get me started on my opinion on where we are going with the younger generations. So much is changing with our culture. 40 or so years ago people got married young, got a job and worked that one job for 30 years.

These days the younger folks are not getting married until well into their 30’s and working at multiple jobs. I just wonder if this trend will carry over into relationships. I think it will and already has.

Why People Divorce

Obviously I don’t have the answer to why people divorce. In fact, I don’t really even want to discuss this topic. You want to know why? Because it just does not matter. I am not saying you don’t matter, just that learning the reasons why are not going to help you with what you have going on in your life, except to learn that you are not alone.

We know all the negative things that spouses do that causes divorce, but what about where spouses just grow apart and it is not working anymore? In my business I see more people simply growing apart than anything else. And it may be less about growing apart and more about that they did not continue to grow together as a unit.

I feel that in most cases divorce is not a surprise. What I mean to say is that if the relationship is so poor that one of you feels that it is bad enough to feel it necessary to file for divorce, or even start talking divorce, that the other party has to have some idea that things are not very rosy.

That said, there are some exceptions. I have lots of women clients that say that nothing is really wrong, that things are just the same as always. Or they will say that they don’t really know why they are not happy, they are just not happy.

What does this tell us? I don’t know, but it could mean that men and women are just different. How profound a statement, right? It may be a reason or It may be an excuse, but it seems some men feel that to go to work, provide shelter, food and safety is enough. But I think we need to get out of that caveman style mentality if we want to see any reversal of the divorce epidemic.

But we are not here to talk about the why. We are here to talk about the how. How are you going to get through this divorce and how are things going to look on the other end of this? I will tell you, based upon my clients conversations and experiences, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. That as bad as it might seem while you are going through divorce, that happiness will reenter your life soon after.

Women Lead In Filing For Divorce

I could research the statistic, but I don’t have to. Women take the lead in initiating the divorce process. In my business, most of my inquiries about divorce are from women and in suit, women are the ones to come in to our offices and initiate the divorce process.

If I had to put a number to it, I would put it at about 80% of the time. Why is this? In my experience I have found that there is just something about the men who simply stick their head in the sand and don’t want to deal with the issues. This is not a blanket statement for all men, but I see this all too often.

Even when the women starts the divorce process, we are still having to drag most men through the process. The men are not uncooperative as much as they just don’t want to deal with it.

I client had recently asked for some information regarding California spousal support and long term marriages. I sent them the below email and later realized it would be a good article for all my readers and clients. It was not personalized so is applicable to all.

I wanted to send some information regarding spousal support. Keep in mind I am not an attorney so will be including some links for your review and my thoughts. There are entire trials on support and for every law or case that argues in one directions there is equally as many to argue the opposite position.

On long term marriages of over 10 years, the courts generally will maintain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely. This essentially means that it is under the court’s jurisdiction to modify up, down, or terminate support upon motion of one of the parties when there is a change in circumstances (such as change in income, etc.) This is often misunderstood to be considered lifetime support. While support in long term marriages can end up being for lifetime, that would be up to the court upon motion of the parties.

Here is a link with good information on spousal support, including long term marriages.

California Spousal Support Facts

Spousal support is there to assist the spouse to get back on their feet after marriage. The duration of support is a very grey area, and the party receiving support is supposed to make reasonable efforts to become self-supporting within a reasonable amount of time. This timeframe is a very grey area and is often called a “Gavron Order”

Here is a good link for this information.

Gavron Order In California Divorce

For purposes of you guys, you can agree to a specified period of time, however as the court will maintain jurisdiction over support, the court order could also simply read, “until further order of the court”

I decided that for the first part of 2017 I would start by providing the chapters of my book, “Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney” which I wrote in 2016, into separate blog posts.  The idea behind the book was to get as much information out in the world about what I do and a better way to get divorced in California.

You can Also Purchase The Book On Amazon Below

Why You Don’t Need A Divorce Attorney: One Paralegal’s Take On Divorce, Responsibility And Compromise

I have also created an audio book version of this first chapter below as well.

This is part 1 of Chapter 1 of the book.

My name is Tim Blankenship and I own a Legal Document Assistant Company in Los Angeles, California called Divorce661 and can be found at www.divorce661.com. We provide an affordable approach to getting divorced in California providing both a full service solution and a do-it-yourself divorce solution at www.CaliforniaDivorceTutor.com. I wrote this book to show you that there is a better way of getting divorced than going the route of hiring a divorce attorney. Thank you for reading this book. I think you will enjoy it and find it very interesting and useful whether you are thinking about divorce, in the middle of a divorce, or know someone who is going through divorce.

Here’s My Story

Everybody has their story of where they are and how they ended up there. Well, here’s mine. It is nothing very exciting, but more interesting than anything else. How did I go from high school, to the Marine Corps during Desert Storm to becoming a Police Officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and then end up helping people with their divorce?

All I can say is that “Life Happened”.

After I got out of the Marine Corps I ended up working as a Police Officer for what was then the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department. Back in 1994 I had applied for several law enforcement agencies and the MTA Police Department hired me first. A few years later, our agency was merged into the Los Angeles Police Department where I worked until 2007.

My life up through this point was great. I was married, had two children, a house, a great job and things were going well. Then it happened. In 2006 I had began selling real estate on the side as there was great money to be made due to the housing boom. I had sold real estate with my wife for about a year and we were making money hand over fist. So much so, that I decided to quit my job with LAPD to focus full time on real estate. At this point my wife and I had our own real estate team as well as working with investors flipping homes so making the move made sense.

Oh boy did we think we were so smart and set for life. But we already know how this turns out, right? There are so many stories and so many people that lost everything when the real estate market and the economy collapsed. And we were no exception. It was gone as fast as it came.

Scrambling to figure out a way to make money, I worked as a Private Investigator for a while and was trying to decide what to do with my life. I had started back at school to finish my degree and it was at that point I decided I wanted to go to law school and become a lawyer.

So I did. Well, I started going to law school anyways. Let me give you a glimpse of my life at this point. I was going to law school, started volunteering at the Los Angeles Counties Court self help centers, volunteered as an intern for the Los Angeles Superior Court System which finally led to a full time job as a paralegal working for a law firm. I was 41 years old and have a wife and two children to support and just never thought I would be where I was at that point in my life. But I just kept plugging away.

While working for a law firm that handles divorce and while still attending law school, I slowly became dismayed at what attorneys actually do. Especially as it relates to divorce. I saw families further torn apart, perhaps worse than if they had not had attorneys. I saw people spend 10’s of thousands of dollars on fighting their spouse throughout the divorce process. I saw attorneys giving advice that in no way shape or form was in their clients or their families best interest.

And again I was at a crossroads of what I should really be doing. So I started doing a little research with the belief that there had to be a better way to get through this thing we call divorce. I discovered that there was a not very well known way of helping people with their divorce without having to go to law school and without having to become a lawyer. I also learned that there was no one in my local area providing these services.

What I am referring to is what is known as a Legal Document Assistant. And it just happened to turn out that because I had my degree and had worked for the courts and a law firm that I already met the requirements to become registered to provide these services. So I got registered as a Legal Document Assistant, continued to work as a paralegal for the law firm and was still attending law school.

I started slowly in the evenings, after work and when not studying for law school to start marketing my business as a Legal Document Assistant. Fortunately, I had honed my skills at marketing which I learned in my short stint with real estate, especially online, so I knew I had a pretty good chance of getting my business off the ground. Slowly but surely I started picking up clients. I would meet them at their home or at Starbucks. I was just starting out, so did not have an office and really didn’t know how well this business venture might turn out.

It had been maybe 2 months since I started helping people part time with their divorce with my Legal Document Assistant business. One day at work, I get called into the partner attorney’s office and he tells me that he has to let me go. I was being fired? It turns out he found out that I had started a business and said that it was a conflict of interest. I guarantee that had I worked at any other law firm that this would not have happened. This was just the nature of this particular law firm.

It was September, 2012 and I found myself realizing at that moment that my little part time business just became a full time business that absolutely had to work out. This was no longer just an extra income experiment, it was now my primary way of earning money. So I got to work doing what I know how to do best. That is marketing.

Fast forward to 2016 and I am still here – And in a big way. I have been able to take a little part time business and turn it into a rapidly expanding full service Legal Document Assistant company in California handling approximately 30+ divorce cases per month. I have published over 1,200 articles online, recorded over 1000 videos and have a podcast that I broadcast daily on. I have helped clients going through divorce save 100’s of thousands of dollars in attorney fees over the years. I am still here, but life sure has its challenges.

About This Book

So why write a book? With all the content that I have produced over the years, I still get the same questions over and over every day. I wanted to put all the content I have produced, whether written or spoken into a single format for people to be able to find the information they need. In addition, I wanted to inform the public about what Legal Documents Assistants really are and what we can really do so people understand that there are better ways to go through divorce than to hire an attorney.

This book will be broken down into chapters which will have questions that I have been asked over the years with the answers that I have given over and over again. And this won’t be just a question and answer session, I will also be giving you my perspective and personal opinion along the way on how I feel about certain situations related to divorce based upon my experience in having helped 1000’s of people with their divorce.

I hope you learn from this book, not only from my experience in helping people with their divorce, but to fully understand that there is a better way to get through your divorce rather than hiring an attorney.

This book is written with the intention of getting spouses to sit down and figure out how they can best get through their divorce. It is to put in your face that it is your responsibility to deal with this as an adult and not let emotion or whatever else get in the way, causing you to throw away money because you are mad at each other. It is to tell you to compromise with each other and if you have children to make decisions in the children’s best interest and not yours.

I think it is ridiculous that people fight during divorce. I can’t stand the pettiness that is involved, the name calling and irrational behavior that can consume you. Knock it off and act like the adult you are! I know, harsh words, I told you that I would be sharing my perspective. And you might not like it and that’s okay.

Now, on this high horse rant of mine, I know that there are folks out there that absolutely need to have an attorney. There are evil doers out there looking to do you harm and you need to protect yourself. This book is not for you and I don’t want you to take offense. I am on your side. And to you evil doers who create chaos and harm others… Shame on you.

Continue reading by clicking the links below.

Just a quick article today to say Merry Christmas to all current, past and future clients of Divorce661.

Our offices will be closed today and we will reopen on Tuesday, December 27, 2016.

The Court’s are also closed today in observance of the Holidays.

I do hope you had a nice holiday with your family. Ours was very low key. We didn’t have to drive anywhere and we didn’t have any family over. Just my wife and 2 kids hung out and watched some movies and played some games.

We did get lazy on Christmas and went to Larsen’s Steak House in Valencia for a nice dinner.