Choose A Paralegal That Specializes In Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Choose A Paralegal That Specializes In Divorce In Santa Clarita

Why should you choose a legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce? If you are going to hire a paralegal to assist you with your divorce, why wouldn’t you choose one where divorce is all they do?

Most legal document preparation companies prepare a vast array of legal documents. They prepare everything from bankruptcy to small claims to immigration. Instead of following suit in the normal business model, we have decided to specialize in divorce so we would be the natural choice when deciding who to use to assist you with your divorce in Los Angeles County.

Because we specialize in divorce, we prepare the most divorce cases of any paralegal or legal document assistants in all of Los Angeles County. Often, taking on more than 5 new divorce cases per week.

Divorce and family law is a specialty area of law. There is constant law and procedural changes that one must stay on top of. This is impossible if your are not preparing divorce cases everyday as we are.

We are immersed in divorce as that is all we do day in, and day out. It may seem redundant, but every case is different and has to be handled individually.

With an unprecedented amount of divorce cases rejected every year, it is important to use a company that specializes in divorce so you know your are working with a company that can not only help get your divorce paperwork approved, but guide you and help you understand the procedure of divorce as well.

We are full service divorce firm in Santa Clarita. We help you prepare all your documents, file and serve them and take you from start to finish for one affordable flat fee.

Using a paralegal legal document assistant that specializes in divorce is a smart choice when getting divorced. The best part is that it does not cost you any more to work with the best.

There Are Many Reasons Your Divorce Judgment Can Be Rejected

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

There Are Many Reasons Your Divorce Judgment Can Be Rejected

If you are one of the many people who have completed your divorce on your own, then you know how challenging it has been.

You know of the countless hours you spent completing all the paperwork and making sure you did it right.

Then you get to where you have to complete the judgment paperwork and soon realize that you may be over your head because of how many forms are involved and how confusing the questions are. But you think to yourself, “I got this far, i’m sure i can do it”.

So you work through the forms, make all the copies, get the signatures and then submit your final judgment. A month goes by, 2 months then three. You start to forget about it and figure it is done, because there is no way it could take this long if the court was going to reject it.

Then on month 3 or 4 your get a package in the mail from the court. You are excited that your divorce is over and rip open the package containing your judgment.

“Wait, what is this? A Reject sheet?” As you read through the reject sheet you are slowly realizing that your paperwork had errors, probably multiple errors, even errors that seem to be ridiculous as the reasons your divorce judgment was rejected.

So after 3 or 4 months, now receiving a reject on your divorce judgment, you realize that you are going to have to do this again. As the frustration sets in, maybe you throw everything in a corner to deal with it another day or maybe you plan on taking another stab at it and fixing the issues with the judgment.

There are many reasons your divorce judgment can be rejected. Most likely it was not a single issue that resulted in your divorce being rejected, rather numerous issues. The reject sheet lists about 50 reasons and then there is always that “other” box which makes the reasons you divorce judgment can be rejected infinite.

What we recommend is coming to us to prepare a judgment review. We will do a complete review of your paperwork. Not just the judgment paperwork, but all the paperwork leading up to the judgment as well.

We have been providing expert divorce paralegal services for several years now and can help you through this frustrating time. Give us a call so we can help finish your divorce and put this all behind you.

We are headquartered in Santa Clarita and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Service At Los Angeles Divorce Courts Likely To Worsen

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Service At Los Angeles Divorce Courts Likely To Worsen

The courts have reported that there will be further court closures, additional restructuring and another round of layoffs which will impact over 500 Court employees in the next few months.

Those of us in the industry are already starting to feel the impact. We are starting to have much longer delays in getting documents filed with the court than we have in the past.

Normally, we could file a new divorce case by mail on a Monday and have the filed copies back the same week. The last case we filed just came back from the court, and we sent it to them 10 days ago.

It makes me wonder what the court is doing with the documents we mail in. I know the Post Office is getting the mail there the next day, so are the forms just sitting there for over a week before the clerk decides to stamp them and mail them back to me?

I have had to make sure I am aware of the slower service of the courts when letting my clients know when they can expect their cases filed.

This will certainly have an impact on when you can expect to have your final judgment forms signed off by the judge. Currently, the courts are taking up to 3 months to sign off on judgments. This could easily go into the 4 to 5 month range.

The other area we will see some issues is with how long it will take to get a hearing when filing a request for order from the court. Most court are running approximately 45 to 60 days before you can get in front of a judge. This will most likely be increase as well.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce in Los Angeles County. Please give us a call if you need assistance with completing your divorce case.

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Have you thought about who is going to take the animals when you get divorced?

Believe it or not, animals are property that need to be divided, just like your home, cars and bank accounts. But unlike the property, there is no way to get 50% of the dog, so there is going to have to be some discussion on who is getting Fido.

Most people don’t address the issue of who is getting the family pet. In fact, we don’t usually address this in the judgment, but you certainly can.

I was asked, just this week, how the issues about their clients dogs can be addressed and when.

As mentioned above, dogs, cats and hamsters need to go to someone. In most cases, you can simply decide who is going to get the pets.

In other cases, you can decide to include who is getting the dog by including them on the divorce judgment forms and assigning them to one of the parties, just like you do all the other property.

On the divorce judgment forms, there is two sections for dividing up property. If the dog was the family pet, this would be considered community property. You would simply list the pet on the community property section under either the petitioner or respondent.

Dogs are considered chattel which is a fancy legal term for property. You can research that term if your interested.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document prep firm in Santa Clarita that specialize in divorce and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Husband And Wife At Divorce Consultation A Good Idea In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Husband And Wife At Divorce Consultation A Good Idea In Santa Clarita

I have been talking on video and on my podcast this week about the success I have had when meeting with both husband and wife at the same time when going through a divorce in Santa Clarita.

I had not done it before, not because i had any issue with it, but because nobody has asked. It just happened that on three separate occasions this week, it was requested that both spouses would be at the initial meeting to get started with the divorce.

It turned out to work amazingly great and I highly recommend it!

Watch this brief video where i talk more about the divorce process when meeting with both husband and wife at the divorce consultation.

These meetings were extremely productive for one. I was able to answer all their questions and get a huge portion of the divorce paperwork done for both husband and wife.

This can best be described by telling you the differences when meeting with only one spouse.

When I meet with just one spouse, which is the majority of the times, i end up having to explain everything we going to do, two times. Once when I meet in office with spouse number 1 and again when I have to spouse number two when they learn they are getting divorced.

This obviously won’t be possible in all cases, but where you are still on fairly good terms with your spouse and think you could be in a room together, i highly recommend it.

It will save you from having to explain the whole process to your spouse once you left our offices. It is easier to just let me explain the divorce process and have both of you ask all the questions of me, instead of hearing it third party from your spouse who you are divorcing.

When you call us, let me know you are interested in coming in with your spouse so we can plan on getting a large portion of the documents done in a single meeting.

 

How To Avoid Being Overwhelmed During Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Avoid Being Overwhelmed During Divorce In Santa Clarita

I have been doing a lot podcasts where I have been discussing some tips on how to avoid getting overwhelmed and frustrated.

I gave some tips, which I will explain here, on how to go about breaking up the divorce paperwork into different steps.

Most people try to tackle all the paperwork at once. This is a bad idea. The first thing you need to take care of the the initial divorce forms that are necessary to file your divorce case.

The only forms you need to complete to file for divorce in California is the Summons, Petition and Family law case cover sheet. If you have kids, also include a UCCJEA.

Once you have these 3 of 4 forms completed, you can file them with the court, get a stamped copy and be ready to serve the divorce forms on your spouse. Get this done right away as this is when the 6 months waiting period begins.

Now that you have your spouse served and proof of service filed with the court, you can move onto the next step.

The next step is to complete your disclosures. This means doing your income and expense declaration and the schedule of assets and debts. Make sure to serve copies of most recent statements when you do this. Don’t file these with the court, you only serve them on your spouse. The only form you will file here, is the declaration regarding service of declaration of disclosure. This tells the court you complied with this step.

Once you have done all this, all is left is the divorce judgment forms. I say “just” but this is, by far, the hardest part. There are up to 25 different page of divorce forms you have to complete here. Make just one mistake, and the court will reject your filing and return everything to you.

This will set your divorce back by at least 3 months. This is why we recommend that, even if you have completed all the documents yourself up to this point, that you have a professional company prepare your divorce judgment for you.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm in Santa Clarita that specializes in divorce.

 

Conduct Due Dilligence Before Hiring Divorce Paralegal In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Conduct Due Dilligence Before Hiring Divorce Paralegal In Santa Clarita

Today I want to talk about the importance of conducting due diligence research before hiring a divorce paralegal firm in Santa Clarita or anywhere in Los Angeles County for that matter.

Yesterday I received a call from a new client who was doing just that. Actually, the client who called me the day before called and we discussed how we can help them. The next day, I received a call from her relative who was interested in vetting me and my company.

I wish everyone would do this before hiring someone to help them with their divorce. It would save people so many problem and it would help me as well.

There are a lot of scam artists and folks calling themselves paralegals that have no business offering divorce services. These folks will take your money, do a bad job and leave you hanging. Be wary of the low cost option when it comes to divorce services.

So how can you make sure you are working with a legitimate company? Here are a few ways you can check out a company before you ever pick up the phone.

  1. Conduct a search for reviews or complaints online. For instance you could Google “Reviews for SCV Legal Doc Assist Santa Clarita”. When I did, Yelp was the first to come up and show our 5 Star reviews.
  2. Read the client testimonials on thier website. Our testimonials are actual client testimonials, but beware of companies making them up. Usually you can tell if the owner made them up on their own.
  3. Make sure they are licensed and bonded. In order to provide legal services, one must be a “Legal Document Assistant” Anyone who calls themselves a “Paralegal” is not allowed by law to work for you without attorney supervision nor can they create a client relationship directly with you.
  4. Read the content on their website or blog to learn about the company (if they even have one). Read the “about” page. I write all our articles on www.divorce661.com and other blogs. They are written from personal experience with current clients and are very informative. Also check to see if they publish their pricing. We do!
  5. Watch a few YouTube videos, if they have any. We have almost 100 videos about divorce and the divorce process.
  6. Listen to any Podcasts they may have done. We routinely broadcast a Podcast “audio” feed and upload it to our blog. Here we offer tips and tricks about divorce.

Now that you have done this, which would probably take you all of 15 minutes, you can pick up the phone and call the company.

The people that do some or all of these things makes for a much more productive conversation  They already know about me, what I look like, sound like, etc. Now we can get down to business and talk about how we can help you get through this thing they call divorce.

 

High Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Good For Business – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

High Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Good For Business – Santa Clarita

As divorce attorneys in Santa Clarita have less and less clients and more and more competition from other attorneys, the only way to keep the money rolling in the door is to keep raising their prices.

I have learned that the more divorce attorneys raise their prices, the more business they drive toward our affordable divorce service in Santa Clarita.

There comes a point where you just have to say “enough” and many are. Those who used to go to attorneys are now realizing that they don’t need and attorney to get divorced.

This has always been the case, but folks have not been aware that there are alternate methods of getting divorced.

That is where we come in and spend countless hours a week writing on our blogs until our fingers are bleeding, screaming at the top of our lungs about our affordable divorce serivce.

And guess what? It is starting to work.

As the word gets out that folks can complete their divorce with us for a fraction of the cost of hiring an attorney, and have the forms completed exactly as the attorney would have, our business grows by leaps and bounds.

People have reached that threshold where they are not willing to pay for a service that has no value. When you over price your service, you drive clients right out the door.

As our divorce services are affordable, clients find we are a great value, not just because of our prices, but because of the level of service we provide.

Give us a call to learn more about our divorce services in Santa Clarita.

 

How Much Are You Willing To Spend On Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How Much Are You Willing To Spend On Divorce – Santa Clarita

You know we talk about the costs of divorce quite a bit here. And I have another update about the costs of divorce in Santa Clarita.

This article asks the question, “How much are you willing to spend on your divorce in Santa Clarita”

This week I met with 2 clients who, prior to meeting with me, consulted with an attorney to find out how much it would cost.

The first couple went together to a single attorney. They explained they had a simple, uncontested divorce and simply wanted the divorce paperwork completed to reflect their agreement.

They were shocked to learn the attorney wanted $3,500 to complete this process. Could you imagine spending $3,500 for someone to type of legal forms?

The second couple i met with each paid $300 for a 1 hour consultation to 2 different attorneys. They were each quoted a fee of $5,000. If my math is correct, that comes to $10,000 to complete their divorce.

These prices attorney’s are charging fall inline with the average costs of divorce which are at $15,000.

These prices are prohibitive for many and in my opinion these costs of divorce are ridiculous.

But as long as divorce attorneys continue to charge outrageous fees for divorce, I will have a successful divorce paralegal service in Santa Clarita.

 

How To Break The News About Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Break The News About Divorce – Santa Clarita

You have made the decision that you want to get divorce. You may have even had casual conversations about it with your spouse. But how and when should you break the news that you have taken the step to file for divorce.

This questions is asked of me on occasion when my clients come into the office to get started with their divorce document preparation.

The first think i tell them is that communication is important. The more you discuss this with your spouse, the easier things will go. Even if it does not feel that way.

The client we got started yesterday, even though they have already talked about divorce and moved into separate homes, was dreading having to tell her husband she filed for divorce. This is totally normal. At least I think so.

Look, you have been married for some time now and there is a history there. Obviously, things did not go as planned, and you need to cut the ties.

When you first approach the idea and discuss things with your spouse it is just small talk. Possibilities, maybe’s, etc. Nothing definite.

But there is something finite about filing the divorce papers. It means you have actually decided to move forward with the divorce and make it official. It is no doubt a big step in your life. One which we understand.

That is why we will never rush you into getting divorced. We sometimes speak to our clients for months before they ever file for divorce. You know when the time is right, we will be here when you need us.

We specialize in providing divorce services in Santa Clarita. Feel free to give us a call so we can help you prepare a plan for breaking the news to your spouse.