California Divorce Use Court Forms For Judgment Not Marital Settlement Agreement

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Use Court Forms For Judgment Not Marital Settlement Agreement

Today we are talking about the easiest way of preparing your judgment.

And the reason I bring this up is because yesterday I had a client in my office that came in and they had this long written agreement it’s called the marital settlement agreement or settlement agreement.

And it was a long drawn out settlement agreement. And some of these you’ll find through other online services, they provide these 10 or 15 page legal documents and a lot of them are legally insufficient so we got away from using those.

And then we also have people who come in who have a written agreement were they basically took out a piece of paper and said, this is what I want to keep, this is our agreement, this is what the other parties are going to keep, and this is the agreement

And a lot of those are being rejected by the court because they need to have specific legal language in them.

You can’t just hand-write or type up an agreement, there has to be a specific language in those agreements. So what we’re doing is we’re getting away from doing those.

In fact we haven’t done them in years. Because the courts now have the court forums that you can use that already have all the legal language and all you need to do is check the check boxes that are applicable. So let me give you an example.

We are talking about the judgment, when you have a judgment you have to have the FL-180, you have the judgment form, and then you just have your attachments for the applicable fields that you have.

So for instance, if you look at the judgment on page 2 you’ll see that you have issues of child custody, child supports, spousal supports, and property.

All of those have specific order forms that you can attach to the judgment which have all the specific language already in them.

So let’s talk about if have children you attached the child custody and the child support order form, and then you just go to this forms and check the boxes that are applicable and you don’t have to worry about is the language correct because it already has the correct court language.

Again, with spousal support and with property all you have to do is check the boxes it indicates which property is community property, which property is separate property, and who’s getting what.

So this is how we do our judgment, we just use the court forms because it doesn’t leave room for chance where you’re going to make a mistake and not put the correct legal language in your documents.

So where the lady came in yesterday she had a fifteen page agreement, we turned that into five pages of just forms.

Did it in about ten minutes just checking the boxes and it was a done deal.

So there is definitely a streamline way of doing this.

Unfortunately the courts do not make this very apparent and if you are looking at forms online and software services online, they’re going to misdirect you and it’s going to end up more difficult than just hiring a service like ours from the very beginning and letting us take care of your divorce for you here in California.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, I hope that was helpful. Please call me.

I’ll be happy to give you a free consultation and explain what we can do for you and we will be happy to help. Please go to our website on the screen here at divorce661.com for more information.

California Divorce The Court Orders Good Cause Appearing

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce The Court Orders Good Cause Appearing

Today we’ve been talking about a lot different areas where people have trouble with their divorce judgment here in California.

Again we are talking about the FL-180 and in this particular case we are talking about what you put where it says the court orders good cause appearing on the FL-180 so we are going to talk about that quickly.

First up, I want to let you know we are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in divorce in California.

So if you have been  working on your own and you may be because you are now watching this video and you are at the judgment phase which by the way is going to be the most difficult part of your divorce in California.

So give us call if you need assistance, we’d be happy to pick up where you left off and wrapped things up for you, again anywhere in California.

But on this specific area what do we mark, what do you put down where it says the court orders good cost appearing.

So what you are going to mark is the first box that says judgment of dissolution as entered marital or domestic partnership status is terminated and the parties are restored to the status of single person and then you are going to mark on a specific date.

Number one, that is what we always mark, that is what the court tells us to mark on a specific date. But then you don’t put that date in there you are going to leave that date blank.

And the court will fill in that date. But what we see is folks putting in a date and what their usually doing is the six months after the reserved date.

But does not necessarily going to be the date specially if you get your judgment submitted late, specially the courts here in Los Angeles County are backlogged their taking quite a while to get these reviewed.

So leave that blank at number four on the judgment form and you are just going to mark box A1 and the court will fill in the date.

I hope that was helpful in processing your judgment form, again a lot of folks have difficulty with that.

Tim Blankenship specializing in divorce in California and feel free to give us call.

We’d happy to help you with your divorce, 661-281-0266 or go to our website which is on your screen for more information.

California Divorce Spousal Support Stipulations To Show Income

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Spousal Support Stipulations To Show Income

Today we are talking about stipulations, specifically stipulations for say child support or stipulations for spousal support.

Now first thing, let’s describe what a stipulation is during divorce, during the process or even after the divorce is concluded you and your spouse can enter into an agreement, this is also known as a stipulation.

Stipulations are usual if you needed some type of temporary order, maybe one spouse is moving out and they need evidence of income and they want to see some type of court order showing that you’re making some income.

Well, you can do that on a stipulations and then you can file with the court, get the judges’ signature and then that can be your evidence of income and that can be a good way to show income if you are trying to get an apartment or you are trying to move out and they are looking for evidence of income.

So regarding stipulations, if you need to have that done, it is something as simple as drawing up the agreements and there are some specific languages and some specific verbiage that needs to be in there for the court to sign up on it.

So if you need help with the stipulations, we can certainly put that together for you. It’s something we do quite a bit putting together either stipulations for spousal support or child support or combination of both.

026: Should You Take California Divorce Motion Off Calendar If You Come To An Agreement

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In this episode, will discuss the process of taking a hearing or motion of calendar when filing a divorce motion in California.

If you file a motion to go to court, ask the court to have some type of order and then you later come to an agreement before the hearing actually comes, you don’t need to go to the hearing.

But I want to talk about that more specifically because I want to make sure you don’t take this and say Tim said I don’t have to go to court if we come to an agreement.

Certain things need to happen. So I just want to talk about that briefly.

So when you file a motion you’re asking the court to make an order for something. But that’s only necessary unless you if you can’t come to an agreement with the other party.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

California Divorce How To List Your Property Correctly On Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

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

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

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.

Benefits Of An Uncontested Divorce In California 

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Benefits Of An Uncontested Divorce In California

Today, we’re talking about what’s some of the benefits are of going through an uncontested divorce in California. And when we say uncontested we basically mean the parties are attempting to work through their divorce.

And come to a conclusion or a decision on everything that’s involved with divorce on their own as opposed to allowing it to go the way of attorneys or in enough where in the courts in the divorce courts.

So I wrote down three notes here. Three kinds of topics I want to discuss and some of the benefits of going through an uncontested divorce in California.

The number one thing I wrote down was of course the cost of going through an uncontested divorce. It’s going to be far less than hiring an attorney at a very minimal cost.

If you end up with an attorney you’re going to spend at least $3500 to $5000 on your end. And your spouse is going to get an attorney as well and at the same cost.

And this is if there’s no court, no trials, nothing is contested and you each have your attorney of your own, you’re looking to spending $3500 to $5000 for an uncontested case with an attorney.

When you use a service such as ours that’s basically a paralegal service in California. We will book with both parties for the same fee. Our prices are very competitive and the value that you get in using our service is immense.

So that is the first thing I wanted to talk about is the cost. The next thing or the second thing that I want to discuss is that there’s going to be a less emotional tool in going through an uncontested divorce.

I have clients in my office many times both parties husband and wife show up to their appointment to talk through their divorce case.

And what I told folks is this that the fact that are they are even sitting in my office together,  the fact that they were able to agree to come in to our office and use our services for divorce is a step and a right direction in working towards amicable uncontested divorce in California.

Now what I tell folks is, I can pretty much gauge based on the conversation and the tone. And again this doesn’t mean you have to like each other. It’s going to be emotional.

It’s going to have, there’s going to be difficulties in getting through it. But basically what we’re saying is the parties are going to sit down together and attempt to work it out together. And in doing so, it will be a less emotional tool on both parties.

The third thing is if you have children this is going to be something where when you divorce if you have kids you’re still going to continue to see each other on either a daily or a weekly basis depending upon your custody and visitation schedule.

So it’s better to go through an uncontested divorce, work amicably or as amicably as possible through your divorce because you’re going to be seeing each other again either on a daily or a weekly basis in regards to custody visitation of your children.

And if that’s the case and your children are very young and there is going to be like custody visitation scenario playing out for years to come, it’s going to be better that you guys have a good working relationship so that doesn’t take a tool on the children because as you know the kids know more than they lean on to say they know or that we think they know.

So those are the top things, the cost, less emotional tool, and if you have children, young children what have you, you’re going to be seeing each other for some time in the future.

So it’s best you work through your kids amicably and it’s going to save you in those areas.

My name is Time Blankenship with divorce661.com specializing in California divorce. So feel free to give us a call. I’ll be happy to talk to you over the phone and see if you and your scenario is a good fit for our service here in California.

The numbers on the screen, feel free to give us a call or go to our website at divorce661.com for more information.

Thanks for watching.

California Divorce Service Providing Tips & Assistance On YouTube

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Service Providing Tips & Assistance On YouTube

If you’re watching this video, you’re one of thousands of people that come across our YouTube videos every day in searching for a divorce service to help you with your divorce in California.

We have seen more and more people find us through YouTube than, I don’t want to say than our blogs because we have over a thousand articles in written format on our website and blogs, so we do get a lot of visitation or locating us that way but YouTube is obviously the number two search engine in search.

We have a lot of videos and people are finding us more and more through YouTube.

So, if you’re watching this video, make sure to subscribe to our channel at youtube.com/divorce661 and you’ll automatically be able to access all of the videos that we’ve shot, we’ve now hit nearly 300 videos as of this video.

We record several a week with helpful tutorials, tips, things we’re seeing in the courts, and things at that nature. Very helpful information that you can need either for yourself or for someone you may know that needs help with their divorce.

This is Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Make sure to give us a call if you’d like help with your divorce. The number is 661-281-0266. Talk to you soon.

We Help Prepare Pension Division QDRO in California For Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We Help Prepare Pension Division QDRO in California For Divorce

Today we’re talking about California divorce and specifically QDRO’s it stands for Qualified Domestic Relation Order.

And what this is, is that you may need, if you have a pension or annuity or 401 case, some of these companies require you to divide up this property if says community property and you’re going through divorce and you want to divide up a pension.

Then, some of these pension companies, 401 case or annuities require you to divide it by a legal instrument called QDRO.

If you need assistance with the QDRO, this is a service that we perform and we can do this pretty much anywhere in California because the pension companies we have to deal directly with them.

So I just wanted to get this quick video out there and let you know that we can help you with QDRO’s.

We do them on a case by case basis.  Just give us a call let us know who the QDRO company is and we will be able to give you a call, let you know what the costs would be in doing so in preparation for the QDRO which basically is just contacting the QDRO company.

Finding out how long your marriage is and there is obviously some other things that are involved with that in determining what the percentage of pension the pension firms find suitable based on the length of marriage and some other factors.

And then, we can draft up the appropriate QDRO paperwork for the division of that specific asset.

Give us a call if you have questions about QDRO’s or dividing pensions, we can do that service for you anywhere in California. Please give me a call at 661-281-0266

We Handle Divorce Cases Anywhere In California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We Handle Divorce Cases Anywhere In California

Today we’re talking about the fact that we can help you with your divorce case anywhere in California.

We are headquartered in Los Angeles County but what I want you to know is that because we’ve specialize in divorce and because we have quickly become the go-to folks for affordable full service divorce.

We have kind of grown beyond the Los Angeles County area and now have cases as far as north of Sacramento, as far as south of San Diego, as far east as San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

So, we can help you with your divorce anywhere in California and people ask me how we are able to do that and we’re able to do that because the divorce process is literally the same in every county.

The paperwork is identical in most cases and we do it by mail. We do it by email. We have some worksheets to send you. You provide the information that we need to complete your paperwork.

We complete your paperwork. We file it and serve it per the procedural process with the courts and we get the process done. We just do it by mail so it’s very simple. We have a very streamlined process in getting your divorce case completed anywhere in California.

So, if you’re watching our videos and a lot of people do. We have a lot of folks that find us on YouTube. if you’re watching our videos, just keep in mind, we can help you with your case no matter where you’re at in California so feel free to give me a call at 661-281-0266. I’d be happy to talk to you and let you know what we can do for you.