Paralegal Divorce Service In Chatsworth CA

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Paralegal Divorce Service In Chatsworth CA

Today we are talking to our friends in Chatsworth. I just want to let you know that we are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm. We specialize in divorce, that’s all we do in California.

In fact, we do California cases all throughout California but this specifically for those of you in Chatsworth.

As a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm, we are able to do essentially everything an attorney can do aside from giving you legal advice and representing you in court.

Essentially, we’re a paralegal firm on steroids if you will. We can get you through your entire divorce case from start to finish. We have low flat fees to do that and as far as our background is concerned, I’ve worked for the courts for several years.

I worked for family law attorney for several years and now I’ve ran this business for several years preparing divorce cases for folks in California.

We have become the go-to-firm if you will in California. Started off just as a, and we still are just a mom-and-pop if you will, we have a couple of employees but we probably do 300 to 400  divorce cases every year and that is growing every year of course.

And we’ve kind of become the go-to-folks for divorce in California because we specialize in divorce and that’s all we do. There are other folks out there that have a similar business but they do all types of things like bankruptcy and things of that sort.

But we’ve decided to specialize and because of doing that we’ve become the go-to-folks.

Now, we have local offices, we are growing throughout California. You can give us a call at 661-281-0266, I’d be happy to give you a consultation for free over the phone and make sure that you are a right fit for the company. You don’t happen to be near a local office, that’s fine.

We do have cases all throughout California, we have a seamless operation where we can serve you online, over the phone and do all your documents anywhere. We do work with all the courts throughout California.

And as far as what we do, we are full service so we will prepare all your forms, we will go to court for you, we will file them, we will serve them, we will do all the court procedures and processes and complete your final judgment which include everything, including assets and debts, custody, parenting plan, visitation, child support, spousal support, all wrapped in together and we will get that done for you.

So, please give us a call at 661-281-0266, please go to our website at divorce661.com for more information about our company, about our services and pricing and so forth.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

Paralegal Divorce Service In Burbank CA

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Paralegal Divorce Service In Burbank CA

Today we’re talking to our friends in Burbank, we wanted to let you know that we’re here as a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm here to help you with your divorce.

We specialize in California divorce and we can help you through your divorce process from A to Z.

I want to tell you a little about who we are and what we can do for you. We’re full service company, number one. So what that means is we fill out all the documents for you, we’d go down the court for you.

We will file your documents, we will serve your documents, we will prepare all your financial disclosures, we will help you complete all the steps as far as processes and procedures that the courts require.

You won’t have to worry about how to fill out your forms or what comes next or what do I do now. That’s what you’re paying us for. And it includes us preparing your final judgment or agreement.

Essentially all the distribution of assets and debts will be included. Your parenting plan, custody, visitation, child support, spousal support, all wrapped into the final agreement that’s all handled in the divorce.

And we will do all of that for you as a full service company so you can go on with your busy life and not have to worry about trying to fill out the forms and so forth.

We do have fix fee pricing, you can go to our website at divorce661.com and you can see our pricing on there and that includes everything. That includes us filling out the forms, going down to court, filing your forms, preparing everything, postage, paperclips, that includes everything.

The only thing it doesn’t include is the court filing fee. That’s an addition to our cost.

But please give me a call, I’d be happy to give you a consultation over the phone, the number is 661-281-0266.

And we are a growing document preparation firm in California. We’ve become the go-to-firm for divorce in California. We just happen to be located here in Los Angeles County so make sure to give us a call so we can help you with your divorce.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

Names Must Match On Summons And Petition California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Names Must Match On Summons And Petition California Divorce

Today what we’re talking about specifically is something that is very important. You need to watch out for when filling out your summons and petition.

This boils down to this. The name you use for the petitioner or the respondent on your summons and petition specifically in all forms in your divorce need to be the same.

We’re getting a lot of clients who are coming to us who tried to start their own divorce and what they’re doing is they’re filing out the summons and petition but the names are not matching, meaning they are making a slight change.

Maybe it’s middle initial. Maybe it is using a full first name instead of short name like Thomas versus Tom.

And the problem with that and this will be the biggest error that you can make because when you file you divorce papers, your summons and petition these are the first documents you file.

Nobody is reviewing these, no one is going to verify and make sure you did this right.

So the problem with this is if you started with John Smith as a respondent and Jane Smith on the summon. You’re going to want these exact same names on the summons as you do the petition.

What we are finding is that clients are coming to use because they are trying to do their own case and they are getting their cases rejected because the names on the summons and petition don’t match.

And the first time that this will be an issue when you’ll find out is not when you filed this. So, I’ll give you an example.

Let’s say you as petitioner are actually Jane T. Smith and you put Jane T. Smith on the petitioner but on the summons you have Jane Smith.

When you go to file either your judgment or your request to enter default, this is the first time that the clerk will actually look at your forms.

If they notice and they will that you have Jane Smith on the summons yet on the petition you have Jane T. Smith, they’re going to say these are not the same two people, the names of the petitioner do not match on the name on the summons and the petition.

Now, here’s what is going to have happen. No matter where you are at in your case, if you just did this and then you noticed it.

Because the court is not going to tell you if you file your request to enter default or you filed your judgement.

When your case gets rejected and it will for this reason alone, you’re going to have to do the following.

You’re going to have to re-file your summons and petition, you’re going to have to mark the amended box and you’re going to have to correct the name, and you’re going to have to re-file it, and then guess what?

You’re going to have to re-serve it.

So, if it’s by mail or by personal service, it has to be re-served and guess what? Remember that thirty days that had to go by before you can submit your request to enter default or your judgment?

That’s right, you have to wait another thirty days thus giving the other party another chance to respond to the case.

If you’re kind of one of those cases where you’re hoping they don’t respond that you just want to put this through on your own and do a default case, you’re giving the respondent another chance to respond because you have to wait another thirty days after filing the amended summons and petitions and then serving it on them and waiting for thirty days.

So keep that in mind, what we recommend is the best practice is whatever name you have in the initial documents would be the same with your judgment or request to enter default and on all forms moving forward on your divorce.

This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. We can help you with your divorce anywhere in California.

Make sure to give us a call, we can help you from the very beginning or pick up where you left off or having trouble with your case. We’ll talk to you soon!

Divorce Paralegal Service In Hollywood Hills California

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Divorce Paralegal Service In Hollywood Hills California

Today we are talking to our friends in Hollywood Hills and I just wanted to let you know about our divorce service that we have for you.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm and divorce is all we do. We specialize in divorce, we’ve done that for several years now and we do this all throughout California but this is specifically for you.

People are looking for an affordable way to get through the divorce process. These folks mostly are going through amicable divorce cases.

They’re trying to get through their divorce without hiring an attorney, without spending tons of money on their divorce.

If that sounds like you, then you need to give us a call. We’ve been doing this for several years as I’ve mentioned and we’re able to get you through the entire divorce process for one low flat fee.

You can go to divorce661.com for more information on our pricing.

Now, here’s a brief overview of what we will do for you.

As a licensed document preparer we can do everything and attorney can do except to go court for you and give you legal advice.

So we will prepare all the documents for you, we will take them down to court and file them for you, serve them, we do all the financial disclosures and all the processes and procedures that are required by the court.

We’ll even prepare your final judgment which includes the distribution of assets and debts, basically who’s getting what stuff, custody and visitation, a parenting plan and spousal support and child support determination if that’s what you’re looking for.

Again, we do that all for a low flat fee. We’ve been doing this for several years and we really have become your go-to-people for divorce in California.

Now, what you will get when you use our service is a full service process, so you won’t have to worry about what forms to fill out, how to file it, what the steps are, what to do next, we take care of all that for you.

And that’s really one of the benefits, you can go on with your life if you’re a busy professional, not spend time on the weekends and evenings trying to figure out what forms to fill out and get frustrated by the process.

We have years of experience, working for the courts.

We worked for the courts for several years, we worked for family law firms for several years and we’ve been having running this business for several years and we have a lot of knowledge from all of these different avenues, from the courts, from the law firm and from assisting people representing themselves.

We’ve seen lots and lots of different scenarios and can help you get through your divorce in most cases. So make sure to call, I’d be happy to give you a free phone consultation. My number is 661-281-0266 or you can go to divorce661.com for more information.

California Divorce Summons Standard Family Law Restraining Orders

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California Divorce Summons Standard Family Law Restraining Orders

Today we’re talking a little bit more about the FL-110 the summons.

In the previous video we just recorded, we mentioned that it did change for January 2014. And I want to talk a little bit more about standard family law restraining orders which if you have copies of the summons it’s on page two.

I want to talk about some of these restraining orders that are going to affect what they kind of mean. So what it says is “starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrain form”, one, removing the minor children of the parties from the state. And then it goes on with a little more detail.

Number two, cashing, borrowing against, cancelling, transferring, disposing of or changing of beneficiaries of any insurance and then it talks about the different insurance policies. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, or any other way disposing of property, real or personal whether community or separate and then it goes on.

You can read this one through four. So, essentially they don’t want you to grab the kids and take them out of state. They don’t want you to cash or cancel or transfer as far as your insurance is.

So, basically you’re supposed to live on your spouse as a beneficiary until the divorce is concluded. As far as the community property and separate property issues is basically just don’t do any of these thing, don’t close accounts, transfer money, etc.

But then it says without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court.

What I tell people is aside from all these restraining orders, you can do all of these things if you are in agreement with your spouse, that’s really what it boils down to.

It doesn’t mean you can’t start dividing up your property while you’re going through the process of divorce.

If you have an agreement, hey we’re going to split this account, we’re going to start selling the cars and transferring titles, and doing those things. You’re totally welcome to do that as long as it’s by agreement.

These restraining orders are put in place to protect one of the parties, if someone whose going to do something in a mean way to try and remove the kids or take them off the beneficiaries or take all the money out of the account so there’s no access to money by the other party.

So, that’s kind of the spirit of the law of why these rules for the summons you want to do by the most part with agreement, you can do in dividing your assets and debts throughout the divorce process.

I just want to clarify that some people when they come in they say “Tim, we want to start dividing I per stuff”, it’s totally amicable and this says we can’t do it.

If it’s by agreement, it’s acceptable to do because this is just between you and your spouse, if this is going to remain outside of the court so, no reason you can’t start getting those things separated prior to the divorce being finalized.

Tim Blankenship of divorce661.com, if you need help with your divorce in California please give me a call at 661-281-0266 or go to divorce661.com for more information.

Los Angeles Divorce Fee Waiver Hours Of Acceptance

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Los Angeles Divorce Fee Waiver Hours Of Acceptance

Today we are just giving you a little update about the fee waiver process with the superior courts and this is specifically regarding the Los Angeles County Courts.

We recently send a client down to the San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court for divorce filing with a fee waiver and the clerk gave them a little note and it says: “Fee waivers are now only accepted between 8:30 AM and 11:00 AM or 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM Monday through Friday and of course aside from court holidays.”

So, Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 11:00AM or 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM. I’m assuming the reason for this change is for the courts lunch break, that being the judge’s lunch break and the judge’s assistant known as the JA.

What happens when you go to file a fee waiver, usually it can be done with the clerk, the filing clerk at the window.

But sometimes they only have a certain abilities in approving fee waivers. Sometimes they need to send you to the actual court room to speak to the clerk in the court room, I think they have a little bit more power to overwrite things or maybe to get a judge to take a look at it if they have questions.

So, sometimes you’ll end up having to go up to the court room to the judge’s assistant, the clerk in the court room for them to make approval of the fee waiver.

They must have had a lot of folks coming in that were questionable fee waivers or kind of right on the bubble where the clerk on the counter couldn’t approve it and need to send people up to the court room so you wanted to make people know when you’re going to file a fee waiver in Los Angeles superior court.

8:30 AM to 11:00AM and 1:30 PM to 3:00PM so not a whole lot of time in there to get a fee waivers done. Just make sure if you are going to go, that you go during those times.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, we specialize in California divorce. Give us a call at 661-281-0266 if you need any help.

Why File California Default Divorce When Parties Agree

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Why File California Default Divorce When Parties Agree

Today we’re talking about specifically filing a default judgment even though the parties have agreed.

There are time when you wanted to do a default style case, this is where you file, serve your spouse and the other spouse does absolutely nothing.

One of the cases that we find this helps is if you have no property, you have no children or limited property or you can have children but it is easier if there’s no children and if the property is separate property is you can purposely do a default even if the parties agreed.

I’ll give you an example of the client today. She came in, they had very little property, what property she did have was separate property, meaning it was not subject to division and no children and the spouse was here but did not want to participate and said, I’ll agree to whatever she wants.

We strategically set this up. That’s the word I was looking for. Strategically set this up as a default. He knew exactly what she was asking for in the divorce.

He had no issue with it so he’d chose to not respond intentionally and we’re going to allow this to go through default.

Default again is where a party files, serves the spouse and the other spouse does nothing. Doesn’t enter into a written agreement and doesn’t respond and does literally nothing and that can strategically be done if the parties are in agreement.

And there’s other reasons to do it but we are specifically talking about doing this in a strategic way to either save money on court fees why should the other party response and pay for response fee if which is as much as $435. Why should he do that if he’s in agreement with everything.

So, we sat down, we drafted the default, knowing it’s going to be a default judgment, drafted the judgment and we’re going to submit that to the court and everyone’s happy. They’re in agreement but they are putting it through as no agreement to save some money so the other spouse don’t have to be bothered with paperwork or be involved whatsoever.

If you any questions about whens it is best to use a default judgment or any other type of judgment, please give us a call, I’d be happy to help you with your divorce in California.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, 668-281-0266.

Turning California Divorce Document Preparation Business Upside Down

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Turning California Divorce Document Preparation Business Upside Down

This is kind of just a plug about our business not a whole lot of incites like the rest of our several hundred videos that we’ve normally done.

I just want to kind of let folks know that we have been acknowledged as one of the few individuals, me specifically who has been able to take this business of legal document preparation from what is normally been a part time or on the side type of job.

Legal document assistants are generally there to help lowly income individuals who can’t afford attorneys, basically help those people through a certain legal matters.

And I’ve turned that idea upside down and what we have done is instead of going after low income families, because honestly there are hundreds of programs, pro bono attorneys and system in place for those folks.

I’ve turned this on its head and we now have created the legal document profession, at least from our view point, no one else is doing this yet aside from us and our target market is people with higher incomes.

People who would normally use an attorney, who don’t want to spend the money on an attorney or to have amicable case where divorce attorneys just aren’t necessary. And we’ve taken a lot of business away from attorneys.

It’s not that we are harming them, we don’t compete with them. In fact, we don’t do the same thing. We don’t give legal advice or go to court.

We’re handling cases where people who are trying to get through their divorce on their own, they want to save some money.

So we’re not helping the low income or people without money. We’re helping people who want to save money, who probably have money for attorney but there’s no need for it or they don’t want to spend the money on an attorney.

By turning this upside down we have established our self and for probably the first times are running a successful legal document preparation business and helping people in the higher income earners get through divorce. Complicated cases, the idea is that there is somewhat amicable and trying to begin through it together.

The reason I bring this up is I receive a phone call from someone who does this as well, what we do and they basically said they’ve been doing this for 18 years and they have been able to turn this into a successful full time business and I think what it boils down to is flat out turning this process on its head.

Not going after the target market that this industry was specifically built for and what honestly the association called the California association of legal document assistants.

They promote that this business should be for low income earners and we have gone against the grain on that 100% and probably one of the first times turn this into a business model that really helps people that don’t have a help available to them.

Talking about, if you are low income there are hundreds of program out there, free services, pro bono services, self-help centers, etc. If you are the 80% or 90% of people who don’t qualify for free services, that is the biggest chunk of society that we’re going after.

And it’s been a very successful model for us. So, I apologize for the plug on our awesomeness but I just wanted to let our folks know that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re here for and we have now been deemed the go-to-folks in California for affordable divorce cases and assistants. Please give us a call at 661-281-0266.

My name is Tim Blankenship. You can go to divorce661.com for more information.

Terminating Income Withholding Order For Child Support California Divorce

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Terminating Income Withholding Order For Child Support California Divorce

Today I want to talk a little bit about terminating an income withholding order for child support and how to go about doing that.

If you have been divorced and the divorce is over and there has been an order for child support with an income withholding order, so let me back up and explain what that is.

If you’re reading this, you probably know what it is. You got divorced, the divorce got finalized for a period of five, ten, fifteen, who knows how many years you have been paying child support and the child support has been taken out directly out of your pay through your employer via withholding orders called an income withholding order.

If you’ve done that, you need to look in to the future in advance and seen when child support is going to terminate per the order.

In most cases it’ll say something to the effect of that you have to pay child support until your son or daughter turns 18 and is no longer a full time high school student.

You have to have one or two conditions met. Make sure to check the language, it should be pretty standard. There’s one or two other things that could keep you having to pay child support so make sure to take a look at that.

But that’s generally the rule, up until 18 and high school student. Once those two things are met then you can terminate child support if that’s what your order says.

I had a gentleman come in today and in advance he is doing the right thing, he’s daughter is going to turn 18 in two months and she is already graduated from high school so, as soon as she turns 18, effectively he can terminate child support.

The reason you want to do this in advance is because you have to go through the motions with the court to get a new court order or zero child support order. So right now, his employer is taking out the money from his pay check.

Unfortunately, the courts aren’t proactive. He can’t go to court before her daughter turns 18 and say, ‘look my daughter is going to be 18 in a few months, please sign a new order so I can get it to my employer now so they can stop paying child support right on the money, right when the time comes.

What he has to do is, he needs to file a motion, he needs to get a court date immediately following her 18th birthday which is what we’re doing for him. So, literally the day after the birthday of his daughter he’s going to go to court, show a birth certificate, she turned 18 yesterday and here’s her certificate or here’s her diploma from high school.

The point of this video is, make sure you do this in advance. If you’ve already got in to the point where you no longer should be paying child support and there’s an income withholding order. Expect to pay child support for another two to three months.

Reason being is it’s going to take that long to get you in to court, get the judge to sign the termination order on the income withholding order and get that filed, signed by the judge and served on your employer. So, keep in mind, do this in advance you are going to want to file a motion around 60 to 90 days before she can get that date you want right after they turn 18.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, we specialize in divorce in all of California. Feel free to give me a call, I’d be happy to help you with any motions, divorce and things at that nature. 661-281-0266 or you ca go to our website at divorce661.com

Post Judgment California Divorce Motions Must Be Personally Served

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Post Judgment California Divorce Motions Must Be Personally Served

Today someone had written a question on our blog wondering what items have to be personally served and which items can be mail served and it can get a little tricky but this video is specifically about post judgment motion.

So, what that means is post judgment, the judgment is already according to the divorce case and you want to modify something such as child support, spousal support or virtually anything you need to personally serve your motion.

The process would be to file your paperwork, get your court date and then personally serve it. Anyone over 18, process server preferably to make sure it’s done correctly and that has to be done by personal service.

The reason being is or I should say as supposed to when you are going through the divorce both parties knew there is a process going on. They are going through a divorce process.

So, a lot of these things can be mail served once the opening documents have been personally served, everything else can be done by mail for the most part.

After there has been a period of time for divorce whether it will be a month or six years or ten years, the court requires that you personally serve any new motions. Because they don’t want to assume that the person still lives there and you mail serve them and they don’t get it.

They want to make sure that it is actually served on the party, the want to know what address was served to them for purposes of service of process, they want to make sure that they are actually served and they knew that they should have attended the hearing.

Keep in mind, post judgment, anything you want to change in your divorce after the judgment has been entered. If you file a motion, you need to have it personally served.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, specializing in California divorce. Give us a call if you need some help.