Did You Use LegalZoom And Have Your Divorce Rejected By Court?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Did You Use LegalZoom And Have Your Divorce Rejected By Court?

Hi! Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com

Today I just received a call from a gentleman who had used LegalZoom and submitted his forms, all his judgment forms, everything that LegalZoom had prepared for him and guess what? It was completely rejected by the court. Big surprise.

Actually I’m not; I get so much business from folks who have spent their money on LegalZoom to prepare their divorce documents. I can’t tell you, I mean, I should actually thank LegalZoom for messing up the forms so bad so people have to come to me but that wouldn’t be very nice to people who spent their hard earned money on LegalZoom forms.

The gentlemen I just spoke to spent $280 on his divorce forms to have them filled out by LegalZoom. He submitted everything, thought he did everything right, waited several months for his judgment to comeback and what he got in the mail, a big, fat rejection letter from the court.

So, he just called me, wanted to know if I would help him prepare his judgment forms and paperwork correctly. Of course I will, like as I said I get lots of people that come in to my office, drop a big pile of LegalZoom documents on my desk and saying: “I’ve had it. I’ve had my judgment rejected once, twice even three times.” – and they give up.

The sad part about this is, as this gentleman did spent almost $300 to complete the paperwork and now he’s facing spending additional money with me. Of course, I always give a discount, feeling bad of the people who have already spent money but this guy spent almost three hundred bucks with LegalZoom.

My fee starts at $700 for divorce, so, for another $400 you can have someone professionally prepare the divorce and not spend the time in frustration and your free time on the weekends trying to figure out the divorce process and the court procedure ultimately ending up in a big, fat rejection of your paperwork.

So, consider that.

Hopefully, I’m trying to get this out there so people realize that there is an alternative to LegalZoom. If you’re going to spend just a few extra bucks, you can get it done right at the first time and not have all the headaches in dealing with this yourself.

Again my name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. Please give me a call; you can reach me direct at 661-281-0266.

Have a great day!

Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Divorce Paralegal Firm In California

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Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Divorce Paralegal Firm In California

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. We’re a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in Divorce in California.

But today, I want to talk to you about the importance of doing a good job in investigating the company that you’re considering hiring to help you with your divorce, whether it be an attorney or paralegal firm or someone like us who is a licensed and bonded legal document preparation company.

I had a new client call from the San Diego area, and she was really asking some good questions, tough questions. Questions I appreciate her asking, as far as: “Are we licensed?”, “Are we bonded?”, “How long have we been doing this?”

She really wanted to know before she handed over her money by making sure that we are a legitimate company and going to get the job done and not going to take her money and run. And I told her that very, very few people do that and I wish more people did.

There are numerous companies out there in the LA area who are providing divorce services or document prep calling themselves Paralegals, who should not be in the business, they are conducting their business illegally.

They are not doing a good job; in fact, much of my business comes from people who paid money to a company who said they would provide a document preparation service for them for their divorce, and, you know, completely screwed it up, or just dropped the ball and left them entirely hanging, started the process and then went out of business.

So, I much prefer that people don’t get taken advantage of. Do your homework. Do the reviews. I wrote an article in our blog on divorce661.com that you can read about some suggestions in looking up the company you’re going to hire.

I personally know that we’re the only licensed and bonded legal document assistance company in Santa Clarita. I know we’re the only one that specializes in divorce in all of Los Angeles County. No one knows this business better than we do.

So, if you’re working with someone else, chances are, it’s not going to be a legitimate company, so you really need to do your homework on them. Some of these companies don’t even have physical addresses. They’re doing this at their home – things of that nature.

So, here are the suggestions that I gave on my blog about what you can do: Google the name of the person who owns the company and see what comes up. My name is Tim Blankenship. I’m in Santa Clarita. You put those two terms together and you can see all of the articles I wrote. You can find reviews, things people said about us..

Google the company name. Our business name is SCV Legal Doc Assist and you’ll see reviews, I think Yelp comes up first. You can see all the different articles about our company. Check third party review sites like I just mentioned: Yelp!

Those are good sites because these are folks that have gone in after doing business with us. Have their review on us to say if we did good, bad or indifferent. You know, these are folks that took the time to write an article.

Fortunately, we have very happy clients; we have all five stars on Yelp!. So, just do your due diligence before hiring a company and giving your money away. I really hate to find people that call me after getting taken.

I guess you can say from another company you’re wasting your money before coming to us and really kind of put a dark shadow on this industry in general and I have to deal with the aftermath because there are people out there that shouldn’t be doing this and are taking advantage of folks.

So, be very careful before you hire someone. Call, ask the tough questions. Do a lot of research, read our blog, read articles. Every blog post, every video and everything I talk about is based on experience. I’m not making any of this up; it’s either based on client experience, my experience on the courts, law firms and self-help centers.

If you have any questions, if you want to ask me about a company you might decide to use or share your stories with me, I’m talking to people all the time with, we’ll take you by your company and had a bad experience. Unfortunately, I get a lot of my business after they have been taken by some other company.

So, give me a call if you have any questions.

Can You Trust Your Divorce Paralegal Company | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Can You Trust Your Divorce Paralegal Company | Santa Clarita Divorce

Hi! My name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist.

We’re licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in divorce.

And today I want to talk to you about the importance of working with a licensed and bonded company when you’re going through the divorce process.

Essentially you want to work with a company that you can trust. When you go through divorce, a large portion of the process is going to be going through your assets and debts.  That means, providing account statements, bank statements, credit card statements, pension information, where you work, financial statements and in some cases tax returns.

So, imagine giving these information to a company that cannot be trusted, perhaps a company who is providing a service illegally who is not licensed and not bonded.

You’re giving up so much financial information; there is a high risk and degree that fraud can occur years down the road.

So, when choosing a company to help you with your divorce you need to think about that, you need to think about the amount of information you’re providing them and if they are not licensed and bonded, is it someone you can really trust?

When you use our company, we use a great deal of confidentiality. Not only are all your documents shredded at the completion of your divorce, but we don’t keep copies of anything. Once we make the copies and their file is served with the court, you get everything back. We don’t want to have anything in our possession that could risk potential fraud down the road.

So, this was just a brief comment on making sure you use a company you can trust with your financial document because you will be providing us everything in your life from before marriage, during marriage and after separation of a financial aspect.

Again my name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. You can reach me direct at 661-281-0266.

 

 

How To File Divorce Court Papers | Filing At San Fernando Court

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How To File Divorce Court Papers | Filing At San Fernando Court

So, today we’re talking about the process of actually filing papers in court for those folks who will be filing their divorce in the San Fernando Courthouse.

Let’s talk about filing the initial divorce paperwork and let’s just keep it simple, let’s talk about the summons and the petition.

When you go to file your papers, now I’m actually talking about when you walked into court and file your papers.

Now let’s talk specifically about the San Fernando branch, where you go for your Family Law case.

When you walk in to San Fernando court house after you go to the metal detectors, you’re going to make a right hand turn and you’re going to go to the Family Law window.

When you go to file your forms, the clerk is not there to help you organize your forms, put them together for you, they’re going to expect them to be put together correctly and you need to have the right amount of copies of your forms and you have to have your papers especially hole-punched, or they will not accept it.

They might, sometimes they’re nice, sometimes the clerk down there is nice and they’ll punch your form with a special hole-maker, but it’s very important that you get this right.

On your screen, you can see I have the court’s website up, so you can see what they’re telling you to have.

The first thing you want to do, is you want to have, and what I’ve done is I’ve prepared a sample here for you, is when you file your papers , you want to punch these holes in here.

So you can see, I have the two holes punched in the top and this would be your original set. So you’re going to have an original, and two copies. So when you file your forms, let’s say, you just have a summon to petition, you’re going to have your summons, and then you’re going to have two copies of the summons behind it, stapled.

Now you’re not going to hole-punch the other two copies because they’re coming back to you. Then you’re going to have your petition, you’re going to hole-punch it the exact same way, staple it and then put your two copies behind it.

And you hand them to the clerk; you’re going to give them everything. You’re going to give the summon and the petition, the original which will be hole-punched, will be on the top, that’s going to have your original signatures and two copies underneath of each of those forms.

Now, the reason you want two copies is, the clerk is going to issue you a case number, and they’re going to put that right here. And, they’re going to give you two copies; one copy is for your records, the other copy is for you to serve on your spouse. So make sure you have an original and two copies.

And if you walk into the clerk, totally prepared like that, they’re going to feel like you’re totally prepared.

If you have any questions about the divorce process or would like to talk to us about having a professional company preparing your divorce for you, please give us a call and you can reach us at 661-281-0266.

And again my name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist, and we specialize in preparing your divorce paperwork.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

California Hybrid Divorce Judgment Checklist

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Hybrid Divorce Judgment Checklist

Hi there! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com

In these series of videos, we’re currently doing a video on the judgment checklist, what forms are necessary to submit when you turn your judgment to the court when going through divorce in California, and this video is going to talk about the Hybrid Dissolution Judgment.

The court’s put out a judgment checklist for all the different types of judgment you would enter and the judgment that we’re talking about today is a hybrid. It’s not a well-known type of judgment but is one on that we use exclusively here at divorce661.com. There are a lot of benefits and you can check other videos on why.

But you’re going to use a Hybrid Dissolution Judgment when a response was not filed, the case is not proceeding by default, and the parties have a written agreement.

So just briefly, a hybrid is exactly that. There is no response filed but you’re going to enter into a written agreement. And this is different from say, a true default case where there is no response and no written agreement, just so you know the difference.

If you’ve have no written agreement and there’s been no response filed, you’re going to want to use the true default divorce paperwork, and we’ll be talking about that in subsequent videos.

So let me go over briefly about the forms, I’m going to put a link at the bottom of this YouTube video to my blog, where we will have a PDF version of this, so you can print this out and have this.

As I tell folks, if you’re going to do this on your own, even – put your name at the top of this, check these off as you do the forms, and make sure the court knows that: “Hey, this is what we’re turning in, and this is the type of judgment, and these are the forms we have included.” It’ll help them, it’ll help you increase your chances of getting your judgment through and not rejected.

Alright, so just briefly, you’re going to need a FL-115, your proof of service of summon to prove to the court that you actually served your spouse, request to enter default FL-165. Don’t forget to include two (2) self-addressed stamped envelopes so they can mail that back to you.

Children involved or any FL-105, you’re going to need a declaration regarding service of declaration of disclosure or FL-141. They’re going to need your stipulation and waiver of final declaration of disclosure FL-144, your FL-170 declaration for default, FL-180 the judgment form, and notice of entry of judgment FL-190.

That’s going to be the basics, the essentials, of your case.  If you have child support, or child custody or spousal support or a property order, you’re going to need to attach all of those as well.

We also did a video on the proper order of so many of your judgment package. Make sure to take a look at that one too. Once you have this together, it’ll discuss exactly what order to put these documents in.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. You can reach us direct at 661-281-0266 and today we talked about the forms necessary for the Hybrid Dissolution Judgment.

Changing Spousal Support In Santa Clarita During Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Changing Spousal Support In Santa Clarita

Hi. This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist; Licensed and Bonded Legal Document Preparation Service specializing in Divorce.

And today I want to talk to you about how to change a spousal support order and this can be either during your divorce process, it can be post judgment, after the divorce has been finalized –it doesn’t matter.

What I wanted to talk to you about is  what the court is going to look at as a reason why you can make a request to change spousal support or modify spousal support, as the court calls it.

The court says here: “Depending on the situation, either spouse might need to change the amount of spousal partner support that has to be paid. As for a change in the support amount, there needs to be a change in circumstances.”

So this is what you’re keying in on here – ‘change in circumstances’, and what they’re referring to is that something significant has changed since the spousal support order was made.

They say here that maybe “The spouse or partner was getting support and no longer needs it or the person paying support has had a significant drop in income and can no longer afford the amount of support”. Sometimes, the support, the spouse gaining support is not making great effort to become self-supporting so the paying spouse can ask the court to change or end the support order based on this.”

So, just to recap that, there has to be a change in circumstances and this is generally regarding money. Did one spouse lose a job, and is now making no money? Did one spouse get a significant raise or a new job and is therefore making more money? And that could be either spouse, or either one, receiving support and you receive the job and are earning more income.

Your spouse may file for modification for reduced support based on her new income and the same can apply to them if you’re receiving the support and your spouse gets an increase in her job then you can go back to court and request for modification to increase a support.

So you can modify it up, you can modify it down, the court’s going to look for change in circumstances and of course, this would be done on a request for order, previously known as an ‘Order Show Cause FL-300’ and there are some more forms you need here during this post-judgment as you see on your screen that it says a ‘Form FL-157’. It basically uses a number of factors to help the court determine if they should grant the request for modification of support

If you’re repressing yourself and you’re looking for an affordable way to get this change in spousal support then that is a service that we offer here, we can help you prepare it, the request for order, we can help you prepare any supplemental forms that are required including your income expense declaration which is always required when you make some request regarding or with regards to money.

My name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist, please give us a call if we could be helpful in changing your spousal support and filing emotion on your behalf, or even responding to a motion in which spouses filed a request for modification of support and you need to respond –we can certainly help you with that as well.

Please give us a call for any questions, again my name is Tim – 661 281 0266, and have a great day!

Should I File For Divorce First | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Should I File For Divorce First | Santa Clarita

Today we’re answering the question “Does it matter if I file for divorce first or is there a disadvantage to my spouse filing for divorce and me being the respondent?”.

I get that question all the time, parties calling me saying “oh I think my wife is going to file for divorce, should I file first? Is there any advantage?”

So, because I’m not an attorney I cannot technically give you legal advice but I can point you in the right direction of where to find this information. So what I will do is direct you to the court’s website and they’ve answered the question here for us.

What it says here is ‘Am I at a disadvantage if my spouse or domestic partner files for divorce first?’

  1. Normally, it does not matter who is the first to file the divorce papers. The court does not give any preference to the first person to file (the petitioner), or any disadvantage to the person who is the respondent.

So, there you have it folks. It doesn’t matter if you file it first. In fact, I had this question just come up yesterday— one of the spouses called me and he was getting ready to file and he said that he’s advised by his spouse that he is going to run out and file first and I said “That’s fine, let her do it”. According to the courts, they don’t give a preference either way. The paperwork is going to be the same. You’ll just be the respondent instead of the petitioner.

Again, this is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. We do provide affordable divorce document preparation services. We can get you all the way through the divorce process at an affordable price.

California Divorce Default Prove Up For True Default Cases

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California Divorce Default Prove Up For True Default Cases

Today we’re talking about the Default Prove Up when going through a divorce in California.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in divorce in California. And we handle lots of divorce cases and we like to report when we see something going on or something new with the courts and things of that nature.

Today we are talking about the California Divorce Default Prove Up.

So, first let’s talk about what a default is because it’s not going to matter to you unless you have a default style of case.

So, a default in California divorce is when one party files and serves the other party and that party does not respond and is not involved and, in fact, are not involved at all. So, it’s what is called a true default case in California.

If you have this type of divorce, you may have to go to court for this default prove up.

So, a Default Prove Up simply is a short trial where the court wants you to come in because they have some questions about your judgment because in a default you are submitting a judgment without the other party’s agreement or participation in the divorce.

Sometimes the courts will have questions regarding, say the distribution of assets and debts, they may have some questions about the child custody and child visitation, child support, things of that nature that they want to have some testimony.

You know, have you go up and give some testimony. They will probably ask you some questions. Sometimes it’s very basic meaning they want to make sure because a lot of these cases are people who are representing themselves.

They may want to make sure you followed proper procedure, then ask you things like: “Did you properly serve the spouse?” “Who did you have serve your spouse?” “When were they served?” “When did you do this, when did you do that?” Because they want to make sure you followed proper procedure to make sure that it is a default and that your spouse is aware that there is a divorce going on and they decided not to participate versus they were unaware that the divorce was even happening.

Now, another way you may get a trial for a default prove up is per your request. There is a form, it’s called FAM031 and it is a request for default setting. Now, this is a form where you can intentionally ask the court to set a Prove Up hearing on your behalf, on your request for specific reasons.

Now, some of them are these:

  • Request to terminate spousal support in a marriage over ten years
  • Request for no visitation or supervised visitation
  • Request for specific amount of spousal support
  • Request child’s support other than guideline

So, these are things that are outside the normal default divorce processes, meaning, those things would have to be specially requested. They are not normally allowed in a default.

Another reason we’re using this form frequently is for what is called unequal division of assets and debts. In normal default cases you have to literally to the dollar, split the assets and debts of community property evenly or the court will reject your judgment potentially.

So, in a default prove up, you can request that they have you come in instead of just out right returning your judgment and rejecting it, to come in and explain why it’s in the best interest to have this unequal division of assets and debts.

My name is Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. We specialize in divorce in California, and we can help you anywhere with any of the courts in California. So please feel free to give us a call. We are a full service firm. 661-281-0266 and you can go to our website at divorce661.com.

 

California True Default Cases with Marriage Over 10 Years

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California True Default Cases with Marriage Over 10 Years

This week we’ve been talking about true default cases when going through divorce in California.

And I want to talk specifically about true default cases when you have a marriage of longer than ten years.

So, let’s first talk about that when you have a marriage of over ten years, the California courts consider that a long term marriage. Now, we are not attorneys or a law firm here are not able to give legal advice, but if you go online you can find this information readily available.

So, in the long term marriages over ten years, the court will generally retain jurisdiction indefinitely over the issue of spousal support.

But what if you are filing a default case (and a default case is where you filed and the other party did not respond and are not participating at all) but you want to terminate the jurisdiction over spouse support and you have a ten year marriage?

Generally speaking that is not allowed by the courts. If you are filing a default and you have a marriage more than ten years, it is customary and standard that you have to mark the boxes that jurisdiction will remain for both petitioner and respondent.

So, in a default case, if you’re going to ask something out of the norm, you may have to ask for a hearing which is called a Prove Up hearing, and there is a form where if you want to terminate jurisdiction over spousal support for a long term marriages in a default case, I know that’s very specific.

You’re going to want to use form FAM031 and check the box that says “Request to terminate spousal support and marriage over ten years”. The reason you need to do this is because if you submit a default judgment and you have a ten year or longer marriage and you ask the court to terminate jurisdiction, they are going to reject your judgment. We have seen it a thousand times.

If you submit this form they will set a prove up hearing. You have to make an appearance in court. It’ll just be you and the court is going to ask you why it is in the best interest of you and your spouse to terminate jurisdiction over spouse support and then they will make a decision whether or not to do that or if they will not allow it and have you go the normal process of having jurisdiction retained for purposes of spousal support.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. We specialize in divorce in California. We can help you anywhere in the state of California with your divorce.

Please give us a call, we will be happy to help you out. 661-281-0266. For more information of our website at divorce661.com.

You can also tune in to our podcast on itunes at divorce master radio. Thanks for watching!