Is Doing Your Own California Divorce A Good Idea

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Is Doing Your Own California Divorce A Good Idea

This is the fifth and perhaps last video in the series this week discussing and helping people have the conversation with themselves if they should do their own divorce or not.

We’ve talked about what happens when your divorce doesn’t go as planned if you’re self-representing yourself, who you will turn to when you have questions about divorce.

Why is it important to get you divorce paperwork done right the first time, should you do your own divorce, and we talked about money, when it’s a good idea to hire someone, when it’s a good idea to do it on your own.

And today we are talking about, is doing your own divorce case a good idea. This may seem very self-serving. We suggest that you don’t do your divorce.

We’re not saying hire an attorney, we’re saying hire us obviously. We’re saying hire a professional company paralegal service, legal document assistant service which we are to prepare your divorce case for you.

It’s going to get done right the first time, we’re going to go down the court, we’re going to fill out the forms, we’re going to file them, serve them, explain all the process and procedures, we’re here to answer all of your questions.

We have all the courts software, anything the attorneys have, software wise we have it as well. We can do everything, start to finish so you can go on with your life.

Divorce is going to be an emotional roller coaster as it is. It’s not something that you want to try and figure out paperwork wise so obviously we’d suggest it’s better to do it with a professional company like us.

That’s kind of our take on things. This has been like a wrap up for the week, and helps you people to decide if it’s a good idea or not to do their own divorce.

Some of the things I may have talked on hundreds of different videos about the pluses and minuses of doing your own divorce.

If you have more time than money then maybe you want to do it yourself but there are so many things that can go wrong with the paperwork.

There’s a lot of information out there about yes, you can do your own divorce but from what we see we do so many cases every year that we have clients call us left and right who’ve attempted and spent months and months and years trying to do their own divorce and failed.

And they all tell me: “Tim, if I had found your service before I ever got started it would’ve been a life saver.” and looking back they would have never attempted to do their divorce on their own.

So I think I can only share people that have gone before you and who have told me: “Tim, I would not have done this had I known that there is a service that could take care of everything like you guys do for us.

Those people eventually will hire us once they find our service and we have to pick up where they left off, retrace their entire case, make sure everything was done right, if not, we fix it because it’s usually what happens and then wrap up their case for them.

That’s kind of how I would explain coming to that decision or coming to that conclusion of whether you should try it on your own or hire us.

Look back at the people that have hired us and people that have attempted to do it on their own and their kind of thought process on what they would do knowing what they know now.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Anywhere in California, we can help you with our divorce, call our number at 661-281-0266 and I’d be happy to talk to you and let you know what we can do for you in your particular case.

Talk to you soon!

I Started My California Divorce And Never Finished It

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I Started My California Divorce And Never Finished It

Today we’re talking about for those folks who have started their divorce and never finish.

That’s the service we provide and something we can help you fix. We’re continuing to get lots and lots of folks who started their divorce either months, years, or decades ago. Honestly, I guess the oldest one we did was 18 years ago, they filed and never finished their case.

But, that is the service we provide. We can essentially pick up where you left off and wrap things up for you. I’ll give you an example.

We had a client call from Utah who lived in California filed divorce several years ago, didn’t finished the paperwork and now has moved to Utah and needs to finish his case in California because it’s still an open case and California still has jurisdiction over all the issues of the divorce.

They’ve gotten about a quarter away through the process, they’ve filed and serve the paperwork and that was just about it. They still need to do a lot of work.

The way this works is when you call us, we’ll have you send over what paperwork you have, if you have it. If you don’t have it, we’ll go down to the courts for you and we’ll get the filed documents so we can see what has been done and see if anything needs to be amended.

Then we can determine what’s needed to be done moving forward and it doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’ve moved out the county, out of the state, out of the country, we can still wrap things up for you.

We can kind of be that local boots on the ground company that can get everything finished up for you.

If you are one of the folks that started your divorce and you never finished it please give us a call. We do and can help you get your divorce finalized in California.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com. Feel free to call us for free consultation or go to our website and you can call us at 661-281-0266

How To Submit Default California Divorce Judgment With Spousal Support

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How To Submit Default California Divorce Judgment With Spousal Support

Today I want to talk to you about something interesting, something that happened this week with a client of ours. This is in regards to a default judgment with spousal support.

We had a client come in several months ago wanted to file for a divorce who’s supposed to be amicable and as things progressed, it turn out to be not so amicable. Not that the other party is contesting anything but they didn’t want to participate in the divorce at all.

The party that we were working with was unemployed and the other party, her spouse was employed so we wanted to get her some spousal support because they had been married for quite some time.

Well, what happen is we submitted the default judgment and we set it for what’s called a prove up or default setting because we are asking for a specific amount of spousal support because she was not aware of what her spouse’s income was exactly.

So, we set the default hearing, she attended the hearing just the other day and I wanted to share with you what the judge told her.

Essentially, because she didn’t have any specific information pertaining to his income, the judge basically said she is not going to word her any spousal support and what the judge wanted is some type of indication of what he was making.

For instance, perhaps some pay stubs of course would be helpful. Obviously if she had a tax return or something along those lines, perhaps some bank statements. Because she have been separated for so long she had absolutely no source or proof of what he was making.

So, the judge simply said, I don’t know what your husband makes, therefore I cannot make an order for spousal support. And she issue a zero support order, she approved the judgment so the divorce was approved and then they reserve jurisdiction of spousal support.

What that means is she is going to have to go back to court at some time in the future whens she can find out what he is making in order to ask for spousal support. Just keep that in mind if you’re going through a default. It’s one of the downsides to a default. I know a lot of people do it because you don’t have to pay the other filing fee.

It was developed for filing and getting through your divorce when the other party doesn’t participate. That’s what the default is for.

But there are some downsides to it and this is one of them. Had husband participated, then he would have had to do his financial disclosures and we would have known what his income was and there could have been an order for spousal support.

When you’re going through divorce in California, there are several ways you can do this, by default, by hybrid which is an agreement without a response, so it’s default with agreement or just uncontested where both parties participate.

There are benefits to both or to all three and there are also some negatives to all three, really depending on your scenario, your circumstances can dictate what’s the best way to go. If you have any questions on that make sure to give us a call.

We specialize in affordable divorce in California, my name is Tim Blankenship, 661-281-0266 or you can get more information off our website at divorce661.com.

How To Get Your California Divorce Done Right The First Time

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Get Your California Divorce Done Right The First Time

Today we are talking about getting your divorce done right the first time.

And this week we’ve been talking all about pro pers and people representing themselves, those of you deciding, should I file my own case, should I try and do the paperwork and a lot of people will call and say “Tim, I’ve tried to file the paperwork or I started the paperwork, I printed it out.”

So, if you’re considering this, you’re going to go through that process. Some people will simply say, I’m not going to deal with this. I want to get it done right the first time.

That’s the topic of this video, how to get your California divorce done right the first time.

Obviously the answer is to use a professional service like ours. I know it’s very self-serving but as a matter of fact, the way the courts have their procedures and processes set up, the paperwork being as complicated as it is.

The procedure of filing and serving and doing everything right can also be very time consuming, not to mention confusing and frustrating and we have helped so many people who have attempted to do their own divorce.

Attempted to just start the paperwork, tried to fill it out or maybe they even went to court and filed it and what we’re finding is, and these are smart folks, don’t get me wrong.

These folks are just having trouble, difficulty, taking months, years in some cases trying to get their California divorce completed and if they realized what they are up against initially, they all said they never would have attempted it on their own.

So for those of you thinking, you might want to give it a shot, by all means, go ahead if that’s what you want to do. If you’re like me, no one can tell me something, I have to learn it on my own.

So if that’s you, go ahead and get started, try and do it and when you get stuck give us a call. We can always pick up where you left off.

Just keep in mind that usually we have to start from the beginning because even if you miss a single check box on the initial petition or you do something wrong, we have to start over from the very beginning and in most cases you’re going to go back and start everything over again anyways.

We suggest you just start with us in the beginning but everyone is going to be different. So, with that said, if you want to get it done right the first time, use a professional service. Give us a call, we’d be happy to help.

We have flat fee services. You can go to divorce661.com and look at our pricing, it’s right there for you, there’s no tricks. It’s the full cost all in aside from your filing fees.

Give us a call, I’d be happy to talk to you over the phone. I can give you a consultation and let you know exactly what we can do for you. And we do handle divorce cases all throughout California so regardless of where you’re at just give us a call and we’ll take care of it for you.

661-281-0266 is the way to get a hold of us. We’ll talk to you soon!

How To File California Divorce Documents By Mail

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To File California Divorce Documents By Mail

Today we’re talking about something very simple, something that people do wrong quite a bit and this is how to submit your document to the court.

Anything that you file with the court, you’re going to want to have an original, with original signatures. This would be, obviously your initial filing paper. Summon and petition or the declaration regarding service of your disclosures and of course the judgment.

Everything you submit needs to be submitted with an original which is hole punched to the top and at least one copy and more importantly, if you’re filing your documents by mail which you can do. You don’t have to go to court every time.

If you file by mail or if you file specific document like the request to enter default, you need to submit original, probably two copies so you can get two back and one to give your spouse if need be or one is fine. Some documents require an original and two copies the like request to enter default.

But more importantly, you need to include envelopes. So what this means is, if you’re submitting something to court and you want it to return to you and of course you do want the documents to return to you like the proof of service, request to enter default, things at that nature. You need to supply the envelopes with postage address from the court to you.

Otherwise, they are not going to put in envelope, they are not going to write your address in there and they are not going to pay with the postage so the file, the document and it’s just going to sit in the court and you are not going to know if it was ever received or what happen with it or get a copy. Now, you’re going to have to go to court.

Specifically the request to enter default, it says on the form that you need to file it with return envelopes to both petitioner and respondent and you need to have an original and two copies.

If you want documents back from the court which of course you do, make sure to send copies, original and copies and envelopes coming back to you with postage paid so you can get proof of your filing and especially when it comes to your judgment.

You need to have three sets if you’re submitting your judgment with your request to enter default with your notice of entry of judgment. You have to have three different sets of envelopes both to petitioner and respondent when you file your judgment.

There’s lot to know when it comes to divorce, that’s why we have this business. We can help you with your divorce case anywhere in California. Please call me at 661-281-0266. I’d be happy to give you a consultation over the phone and then we can talk about how we can help you with your divorce.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

How To Download IRS Tax Returns Online

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How To Download IRS Tax Returns Online

Today we’re talking about how you can now get your IRS Tax Returns online and that may be important if you’re going through divorce in California at least.

Recently they have instituted the need to exchange tax returns. That’s one reason if you don’t have them or you don’t have copies or you’ve lost them. You can now get copies of them online and I’m going to share with you the IRS link to do that.

Another reason you may need your tax return and we came across this recently, is if you’re trying to get spousal support and you can’t prove the other parties income and maybe you don’t have the copies of your tax return and you need to see what’s their incoming was the prior year to help with determining spousal support.

You’d want to get a copy of your tax returns. In the past you had to ask to get your transcripts by mail and there is an application and it took five to ten days, I’m just looking at the IRS site now.

But now you can get your transcripts, your IRS tax returns online instantaneously after answering a series of security questions.

The IRS link is, www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript, and that’s the direct link to IRS site to get your transcript online. I just want to share that with folks.

I had a client trying to get their transcripts recently, their tax returns recently because they’re going to court and the judge wasn’t going to order spousal support without there being any evidence of income and because they have been separated for such a long time.

She didn’t have any evidence of pay stubs or things at that nature and so the only way to do that is to get the tax returns but you might say why you just don’t go the tax prepare or if you use an online, why you just don’t print a copy.

Well, this was a case where they used a physical tax-preparer and that tax-preparer happened to be a relative of the spouse who was not turning over the documents intentionally.

Don’t suppose that would happen in too many scenarios but I did want to share this link in case you are trying to get copies of your tax returns and you need them quickly and you now can get them online so I hope to give you that link was helpful.

We do specialize in divorce in California if you happen to need help in that area. Please feel free to give us a call. 661-281-0266.

Helping Deployed Service Members With California Divorce

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Helping Deployed Service Members With California Divorce

Today I just to talk about our service to our military folks. I’ve done a video or two in the past and I think its being seen by our military folks who are going through divorce.

I had a call yesterday and it was a sailor in the Navy obviously, overseas, deployed on a ship and he lives in San Diego of course as many as our California Naval personnel do.

I didn’t get where he was at the ocean, I’m sure it was something he don’t want to talk about anyways or what the ship he was on.

But he was calling me, he’d found me online. I think he probably found me o YouTube or one of the blog post I’ve written about helping up the military.

But anyways, we’re getting a lot of military folks calling us who are deployed overseas, whether it be in Germany, we’ve had people in Australia and this may be the first call that I know of where I was getting a call from them and they we’re actually on ship and being deployed.

So, for those folks who are in the military, regardless of the branch of service. I just want to let you know, you don’t have to wait until you come back from deployment if you want to get the ball rolling.

We are going to help him file his divorce. He lives in San Diego, his wife lives in Los Angeles and what we’re going to do is we’re going to file his case for him.

We have a phone appointment set.

We were able to work with him with the various time zones to see what would be a good time that we can meet and we’re going to complete his entire divorce process over the phone and via email and coordinate that with his wife here in Los Angeles and take care of his divorce for him.

If you kind of fall in that scenario and you need to get through the process and you need someone on the ground helping you out so you can go on with your business in the service. We can take care of business for you.

I’m a former Marine. If you can see on my video, on the upper left you’ll see my cover and my honourable discharge on the center of the screen, so you have someone on your side.

We’ll take care and help you with your divorce here in California. And then just keep in mind also if you’re watching this, you’re a residency has to be in California for us to help you.

If you’re domicile or where you live when you’re not deployed is California, we can help you anywhere in California but only in California.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, specializing in California divorce.

Thanks for serving!

Filling Out Divorce Forms Is Just Half The Battle In California Divorce

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Filling Out Divorce Forms Is Just Half The Battle In California Divorce

Today I want to talk about what the true value of our service in preparing divorce documents in California really is.

I get a lot of people that come to me and say, “Tim, I went to look at the forms online and it looks like it’s something I can do”.

I’ve heard a lot of people try to do it by themselves, they’ve to the court website and try to use the forms, fill out the paperwork and usually what will happen is they’ll get frustrated and decide to hire us to prepare their California divorce documents.

But us, as a legal document preparation firm filling out your forms for you is only one half of service and is not even the important part of the service.

Obviously it’s important that your documents are done correctly and they’re filed correctly and they’re served correctly.

But what people don’t understand where the real value is in what we do is in the information that we provide to folks.

We’re here to answer your questions about procedure and process, help dividing up your property, help you determine spousal support, child support, a parenting plan and talk to you about all the different things that go into a divorce.

I think if you’re trying to fill out your own paperwork, I think you’re being very short sided.

That’s just one portion of the divorce process. It’s a divorce. It’s a major step in your life. You want to make sure it’s done correctly and you’re going to have a lot of questions.

So my advice to you is before you get started, give us a call, learn what information we can give you, how we can help you throughout the process not only in filling out your forms, serving them.

Taking them down to court, saving you time and effort and frustration and ultimately money but we are here as a resource and answer questions anytime you have them, whether be in person meeting or over the phone or via email.

It’s one of the biggest values you’re going to get in using our service is having a person there who has worked for the courts for several years which I have, who has worked for a family law attorney for several years and now who has been doing this and processing several hundred divorce cases every year.

We see a lot of things and we have a lot of information from various different areas. The courts, family law, and then now helping people representing themselves get through their divorce.

Keep that in mind when deciding whether you want to do your divorce or not on your own or get a professional company like us to do it.

It’s not just the filling out the forms, which we obviously do a great job at. It’s the information that we can provide you throughout the process.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, we specialize in divorce in California. Please call us, we’d love to help you get through your divorce. We’ll talk to you soon.

Filing Request To Enter Default In CA Divorce When Spouses Live Together

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Filing Request To Enter Default In CA Divorce When Spouses Live Together

Today we came across something interesting. We had a client who gives us a call.

They were attempting to do their own divorce and they’re having trouble all along the way but specifically in the area of trying to file their request to enter default.

And when they came to us they had had the default rejected and it was for a reason that we hadn’t seen before.

We’ve never had this problem and I don’t know if it’s because we are filing paperwork for folks in a professional manner and the courts know who we are or because these person are representing themselves.

But this is what it was in regards to.

So the default was rejected, she had filed the request to enter default and it was rejected and the rejection letter from the court said, “If petitioner and respondent reside at the same address or the address of the respondent on the default request is different with the address on the proof of service, petitioner must submit a declaration under penalty of perjury explaining why.”

So what we get out of these is if you file for divorce and you’re still living with your spouse and you use that same address on the petition for you and your spouse.

They basically want to know why you are filing for a default if your spouse is there in the same household. Why wouldn’t they respond, why wouldn’t she do a hybrid or a default with agreement.

I guess it’s an interesting topic because we’ve filed many cases where the husband and wife live together throughout the divorce for financial reasons. Only deciding to separate once the divorce is actually finalized.

We haven’t ever run across this, I don’t know if this is a new rule of doing so but it appears now that if you’re using the same address for both petitioner and respondent and you’re filing a default case. You need to provide a written declaration of why this is the case.

And I would assume the answer would be, we’re still living together for financial reasons and petitioner and respondent still residing together and we’re filing a default because we don’t want to pay for the other filing fee. Or we’re filing a default because we’re in agreement so there’s no reason to respond.

Those would probably be some acceptable reasons for your written declaration. So, it’s not a big deal.

What they’re trying to avoid, I gather, is having someone file, saying they were served and then defaulting and the person actually not knowing that the divorce was ever finalized.

I think that’s what the courts are trying to prevent happen. Kind of like a fraudulent divorce where people finalize the divorce and the other person never even knew the divorce was happening. That’s what I get out of this particular rejection letter.

So, I’m going to talk about this a little bit more in future videos but this was something new that came up that we hadn’t seen.

So if you are representing yourself, keep in mind if you use the same address, it appears now that you need a declaration explaining why you’re filing a default when you live with the same location and your spouse should be available to respond or enter into a written agreement with you.

Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, we handle divorce cases all throughout California. Please give us a call at 661-281-0266. I’d be happy to give you a free consultation over the phone.

Divorce Paralegal Service In Westwood, CA

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Divorce Paralegal Service In Westwood, CA

Today we are talking to our friends in Westwood, California.

We’re talking about what we can do to help you with your divorce.

Now, we’re located in Santa Clarita, California but we do have state-wide divorce service where we can help you from start to finish with your divorce and I want to talk to you a little bit about what we can do for you and how we can help you save money getting through your divorce.

We are full service, that means that we fill out all the forms, we go down the court for you, we file them, we serve them, we will do all the financial disclosures that are mandatory by the court.

All the processes and procedures will be taken care of by us so you don’t have to worry about what forms do you have to fill out or what you have to do next, we take care of all that.

We also will prepare your final judgment, also known as the agreement. Now, this includes everything. From distribution of your property, who’s going to get what property, how is it going to be divided?

We also will take care of any parenting plans, custody, visitation, spousal support issues, child support issues and so forth.

Everything is included in the final agreement for your divorce. Keep in mind that we are in Santa Clarita but we are serving all of Los Angeles County. We do have a courier service that files our documents for us so you don’t have to worry about going to court.

You won’t either have to come to our office. We have a streamlined approach that we can do this either over the phone or through a questionnaire format via email, whichever is more appropriate for you. Whatever is easier for you.

One of the best things about our service aside from us taking care of everything for you is that we are here for you for questions, comments if you have question about the process, or you need help getting through the process, that’s where a lot of our help will be shown.

Make sure to give us a call, I’d be happy to help you with your divorce here in California. 661-281-0266 or again just jump over to our website at divorce661.com for more information.