California Divorce Default With Agreement vs Default Without Agreement

Hi, my name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. We’re licensed and bonded legal document preparation service specializing in divorce in California.

Today we’re talking about the difference between a default with agreement and a default without agreement.

So, when you do a default, you may have heard of a default case. A default simply means that the other party did not file a response. That’s all what a default means, it means they’re defaulting and there is a method of going through a divorce process where you file a default.

Now, there is two types of default cases; there is a default with agreement divorce and there is a default without agreement divorce. A default without agreement is also known as a true default case. A default with agreement is also known as a hybrid.

So, I want to talk to you about these two because there are a lot of people doing default without agreement cases because they don’t know that default with agreement exists.

So, let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages of this.

Number 1: A default with agreement means the other party didn’t respond but they are going to do everything they would normally do if they’re going to be involved and do the paperwork just as they would if they did respond but they’re not going to have to pay a filing fee.

So, obviously there is an advantage to that. You have one filing fee, they can be involved in the case, all the same and you get the same finished product.

You will get the divorce they will be involve, they’ll sign the agreement and another benefit to that is when you are in agreement, the distribution of your assets and debts, your community property. You can decide how that’s to be divided. It can be lopsided, one person can get more assets, and one person can get more debts.

The court does not get involved with the actual distribution of your community assets and debts if it’s by agreement. In fact, they won’t even look at the values all they know is you’re getting X, Y, Z account. This person’s getting X, Y, Z car. No values are indicated.

They don’t care if it’s a lopsided; all they know is you guys have come to an agreement, they don’t care that one person got more or less, they know that you’ve made this decision in your best interest because both parties are involved.

Now, let’s talk about the default without agreement. When you do not have agreement, no response and the other party is not going to be involved, the court does not allow you to make those types of decisions when it comes to your community property. This community property is property you had or obtained asset or debt wise during the marriage. Okay, that’s what we’re talking about here.

The court will not allow you to have an unequal division of community assets or debts. They’re going to require that you literally cut it down the middle.

There are very few exceptions to this. In fact, if you want to get an exception from the court, you have to petition the court, and you have to go to a hearing and tell them why it’s in best interest to do it this way.

But right off the bat they’re going to reject any judgment you put forth on a default without agreement where you did not divide the assets and debts right down the middle.

And we have several cases like this where people would come to us after attempting doing the divorce on their own and doing a default without agreement and not being able to get the judgment approved because they have assets and debts, let’s say you have five assets each worth ten thousand dollars each. So, fifty thousand dollars on assets, but because of something that happened in the marriage or some agreement you have with your spouse, you’re going to keep more, let’s say thirty thousand of the assets and your spouse is only going to get twenty thousand.

On a default without agreement, that is not allowed. They will reject that time and time again. We’ve seen it happen with clients who have come to us. Their judgments get rejected and the court is enforcing the fact that the want them to literally divide the assets right down the middle even if it’s not fair, because they don’t know what’s fair other than to say it needs to be divided evenly because that’s community property.

We have another example, just called me yesterday; they’re doing a default without agreement but the other party is there and willing to do the paperwork they just didn’t want to pay the filing fee and they are having so much problems trying to file their default, their true default, no agreement, because the wife was going to keep her pension.

It was a community property pension. They’ve been married for a long time over twenty years but the husband didn’t want to have anything to do with the pension. He’s going to allow her to keep it but she had her judgment rejected twice because she is trying to keep the community property pension and the court won’t allow it.

So, she was trying to call, jump through all these hoops and get him to sign something to tell the court they doesn’t want it but the court won’t have anything to do with it. I told her: “Why don’t you just do a default with agreement? He’s here, he’s willing to sign paperwork, just get him to sign the paperwork and do a default with agreement.”

She was blown away. She had no idea this existed, she doesn’t have any idea this is possible. She’s coming in today for us to do the paperwork for her and its, it’s just getting him to sign a few forms. It’s still a default. It will still enter the default, but he’s just going to sign, the spouse is going to sign a couple of forms. They’re not going to look anything at the assets at that point. They know the parties have signed, they have been present and they’re doing things in their best interest and they are going to allow it.

So, this will be a simple fix for them and she is very happy to come in and get that done.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. We specialize in divorce in California. You can find us on YouTube we have hundreds of videos now, videos likes this that are helpful tutorials and so forth at YouTube.com/divorce661.

Feel free to call me. I’d be happy to help you with your California divorce. 661-281-0266.

Again my name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

Thanks for reading!