025: How To Modify California Divorce Judgment When You Have An Agreement By Stipulation

In this episode, we talk about the ways you can modify your existing divorce judgement when you are in agreement. Is it not always necessary to involve the courts to get a modification of some term of your divorce agreement.

Today I had a question come in from a client. And they had already were divorced. Divorce is finalized. And they wanted to make some changes to the agreement. But they wanted it in writing.

I won’t get in to the specifics of what they are trying to change. But they were just trying to modify some portion of their judgment.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast to know how we were able to help the client.

024: How To Look Up Your California Divorce Case Number

In this episode, we will discuss how to look up your California divorce case number and why you will want to check your California divorce case number and case summary frequently during your divorce.

So if you are going through a divorce, obviously, you’re not going to have a divorce case if you haven’t filed for divorce.

But if you’re going through divorce there is going to be times you’re going to want to pull up your court records also known as a case summary to see that certain documents have been filed.

We will talk about the reasons why you would want to check the case summary.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

022: How Long Does It Take To Get A Divorce In California (Podcast)

In this episode, we talk about how long a divorce in California will normally take. We talk about California’s cooling off period, why the soonest you can get divorced is 6 months and when the 6 month clock actually starts ticking.

I want to talk about more specifically when the time that clock starts and when you can anticipate being done with your divorce.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

019: Is Court Appearance Required When Divorcing In California

In this episode, we talk about whether or not you will have to go to court to complete your divorce in California. We discuss things you can do to avoid having to go to court and reasons why you might have to appear in front of a judge.

This is a very interesting episode, another topic that we are asked almost daily and this is if you have to go to court when you’re going through a divorce in California.

Now obviously this depends on a lot of things. But I will tell you with the utmost certainty that the cases we handle, the amicable cases, cases where the parties are working together to come to an agreement in their divorce case will not have to go to court in most cases.

018: Can I Finish My California Divorce That Was Started Years Ago (Podcast)

In this episode, we talk about the issue of starting your California divorce years ago and never finishing it and if you can complete your case using the existing case or if you case was dismissed by the courts.

We’re going to talk about how long in case will sit with the courts without ever being completed.

Because this is a question that we get not everyday but I’d say at least once a week where we will get a call from someone who stared their divorce case whether they started their divorce on their own or they had an attorney years ago or what have you.

People are calling to find out how they can finish their divorce case. make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

016: Our True Value Is Our Knowledge Of The California Divorce Process And Procedures (Podcast)

In episode 16 we talk about the true value of our service. Yes, we provide expertly prepared divorce forms in California. But completing the divorce forms is only half the battle.

Our true value is the information we provide the answers to your questions all along the way during your divorce as far as the process and procedure of getting your divorce finalized.

And it’s very normal. In most cases it’s everyone’s first time going through divorce. And you’re going to have lots of questions and we will be here to answer all of your questions.

And we can do just about everything a law firm can do. Except giving legal advice and represent you in court.

014: Understanding Qualified Domestic Relations Orders During Divorce (QDRO)

In this episode, we are talking about what a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or QDRO is. This is a legal document that you may need if you have a pension that needs to be divided as part of your California Divorce.

And we’re talking QDRO’s today because if you have a pension and you’re going through divorce there’s a chance, a high chance, that you’re going to need a QDRO if you’re to going to divide your pension.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

California Divorce How To List Your Property Correctly On Judgment

California Divorce How To List Your Property Correctly On Judgment

In this article we are going to talk more about how to list your property when addressing your property on your judgment of your divorce here in California.

So we have a lot of folks when people call us, so they will call us at the beginning and just they’ve decided right upfront they don’t want to use someone service.

They’re going to do it on their own. I think it’s simple and so forth. Some people call us in the middle of their case where they have filed and done some of the paperwork. And then they get stuck and then they call us to finish things up forth.

And then some people try to get through the entire case and get stuck at the judgment phase or get the judgment rejected multiple times. And in regards of where at your case we can certainly help you.

But in this video I want to talk to you about how to list certain property. And a lot of issues we’re seeing with clients who argues in our service they later come to us, “How do we list some of that property?

So what we’re talking about is the judgment. And we’re talking about the property or order form when you’re completing your judgment and the property.

So a couple of things when you’re listing your property on the judgment you need to identify specifically so it doesn’t leave any doubt in the courts mind or the other parties mind what property you’re referring to.

So for instance, if you’re going to list a car on the judgment, you should list the year make, model and license plate. So 1999, Toyota Camry, license plate blah-blah. That’s how you should list it.

What we’re seeing with these people are just listing Honda Ford and that’s it. Well that’s not sufficient.  That will be rejected by the court because it doesn’t identify the property specifically.

But you can also use the VIN but that’s obviously a lot longer number. So you’ll just be fine by just using the license plate.

Now for other types of vehicle like boats, trailers, off road motorcycles, there’s always going to be some type of identifying number.

For boat there’s a whole number. For trailers they have a license plate. There are identifying numbers for off road motorcycles. So just use those numbers to identify it specifically.

The other thing is a home. If you have a home and you’re going to be–if you’re going to address that in your divorce which of course you will. You can’t just list the property address.

You need to get the legal description of the property. Now the easiest way is to simply pull out your deed. And go to the appendix that gives the legal description.

It’s essentially a short paragraph that it describes those legal description Lot 4 of Track 9 and so forth.

Bank accounts and credit cards. So when you’re listing these items, what you want to list is the name of the bank and just the last four digits of the account.

You don’t want to put the whole 16 digits account number of your credit card. You don’t want to put all the digits of your bank account because essentially these documents aren’t public record.

So you’re not going to want to have your account numbers out there one more way someone can access your personal information. So for instance, your credit card Bank of America, last four digits 1234.

That’s all you need to say, maybe Bank of America Visa, 1234. And if it’s a checking account then Bank of America Checking, 1234. That’s how you’d list that type of property.

So regardless of what it is just adequately describe it. So there’s no doubt in your mind, the other party’s mind or the courts mind with that property.

This is Tim Blankenship divorce661.com. We specialized in providing paralegal divorce services here in California. Make sure you give us a call.

I’d be happy to help you anywhere in California with your divorce at any stage with your divorce in California.  661-281-0266 free consultation just let me know you watched our video and I’ll be happy to take care of you.

Thank you for watching.

California Divorce Court Acquired Jurisdiction Of The Respondent

California Divorce Court Acquired Jurisdiction Of The Respondent

Today, we are talking about the judgment form. This is the FL-180 and specifically we’re talking about in area where people are having trouble in determining what date is placed in this specific field.

This is at number three. It basically says, the court acquired jurisdiction of the respondent on what date.  So the court wants to know when did the jurisdiction in this case started.

People don’t understand in a lot times what the court is asking for, what is the court’s—what is this jurisdiction date they’re asking for?

Well it’s actually quite simple. What they want to know is what is the day that your spouse was served? Or if you were served what is the day that you were served the documents, the summons and petitions in your divorce?

That’s the date the court requires jurisdiction and that’s what starts the clock on the sixth month process, on the 3o day process if you’re filling a default style divorce but that’s the date you’re going to want to use.

So what date are we talking about specifically? When you file your divorce case you have to then in the next step you need to serve your spouse. Not you specifically, it has to be someone other than you over the age of 18, could be a family member, a friend, a process server, a sheriff, anything like that.

So that date that they are served if it’s by personal service is the day the court requires jurisdiction. And that’s the date you’re going to place on the form. And again, that’s also the date that starts the six months process.

But what if you don’t do personal service? What if you don’t specifically hand the document to the other party and so you don’t know specific dates.

What we’re talking about specifically is what’s called the notice and acknowledgement of receipts. A lot of our divorce cases we won’t personally serve them. We will just mail serve them the divorce documents that been filed.

And we used what’s called the notice of acknowledgement and receipt. If you mail those documents to the other party, again, it has to be someone else that has to mail them. They mailed the documents to the other party and they basically asked them to sign acknowledging receipt.

And so for this date of jurisdiction the day they signed that notice of acknowledgement of receipt will be the date of service. Not the day you mailed it, the day they signed it because they’re required to sign it acknowledging receipts and then mail it back to you.

When you get it back take a look at the date they signed it that will be the date of jurisdiction. The other thing I want to talk about is if you are serving your spouse and your spouse lives out of state.

If they lived out of state you can use the notice of acknowledgement of receipt. But you can also use the service by certified mail. This is where you will certify mail the documents to your spouse.

You need to do it with return receipt and they will sign having received the certified mail. Sometimes the post office will sign having those received it. But the day they received it and you get that card back, as soon as you turned it over, it’s going to say the date they were served.

You can use that date as a date of service. That can be your date of jurisdiction for your divorce. So personal service would be day they were served.

If you do it mail service it’s going to be the day they signed it. And if it’s by certified mail it’s going to be the day they received it.

So I hope that makes sense because when you submit your judgment, if you have the date wrong on this line item your divorce will be rejected. Your judgment will be rejected simply for having the wrong date in there.

Do you have any questions on that, feel free to give me a call 661-281-0266. We are a full service divorce firm.

And if you need assistance with your divorce, we’d be happy to take your case over. Or if you haven’t started I’ll be happy to get your divorce. I’ll start it and wrap it up for you.

Please give us a call. Looking forward to working with you. And thanks for watching.