How to Get a Default Judgment in a Divorce Case | Los Angeles Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

 

How to Get a Default Judgment in a Divorce Case

Divorce can be a challenging process, especially when one spouse is unresponsive. If you find yourself in a situation where your spouse is ignoring divorce papers, a default divorce might be the answer. This post will guide you through the process of obtaining a default judgment in a divorce case, ensuring you can move forward with your life without unnecessary delays.

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Understanding Default Divorce

A default divorce occurs when one spouse fails to respond to the divorce petition within a specified time frame—typically 30 days after being served. When this happens, the filing spouse can request a default judgment, allowing the divorce to proceed without the non-responsive spouse’s participation. This streamlined approach can save time and reduce stress.

The Default Judgment Process

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to obtain a default judgment:

  1. Serve Divorce Papers: Begin by ensuring your spouse is legally served with divorce papers. This is a crucial first step.
  2. Wait for 30 Days: After serving the papers, you must wait 30 days for your spouse to respond. If they do not respond, you can proceed.
  3. File Request for Default: If no response is received, file a request to enter default (Form FL-165) with the court. This signals that your spouse has not engaged in the process.
  4. Submit Final Judgment Paperwork: Include necessary financial disclosures and any other required documents if you are requesting spousal support, child custody, or property division.
  5. Obtain Judge’s Approval: Once the judge reviews your paperwork and approves your default judgment, your divorce is finalized without your spouse’s involvement.

Key Considerations for Default Divorce

While pursuing a default divorce can be an efficient way to finalize your separation, there are important considerations to keep in mind:

  • Proper Service is Crucial: Ensure your spouse receives the divorce papers correctly. Failure to do so may delay the process.
  • Financial Disclosures Required: Even in default cases, you must provide financial disclosures. This is essential for any requests related to spousal support, child custody, or property division.
  • Understand the Risks: Default divorces can sometimes lead to unfavorable outcomes for the spouse who does not respond. It’s important to know your rights and consider seeking legal advice.

Real-Life Example: A Successful Default Divorce

Consider the story of one client whose spouse ignored divorce papers for months. By adhering to the default judgment process, we were able to finalize their divorce without their spouse ever participating. This illustrates how effective and straightforward the process can be when executed properly.

Why Choose Divorce661?

At Divorce661, we specialize in efficiently handling default divorce cases. Our services stand out for several reasons:

  • Flat-Fee Divorce Services: We offer a transparent, flat-fee structure, eliminating the surprise of expensive legal fees.
  • 100% Remote Services: Handle everything from the comfort of your home without the need for in-person meetings.
  • Correct Paperwork Submission: We ensure all paperwork is filed correctly to avoid any delays in the process.

Steps to Take if Your Spouse is Unresponsive

If you find yourself in a situation where your spouse is unresponsive, don’t panic. Here’s what you can do:

  1. Document Everything: Keep a record of all attempts to serve divorce papers and any communication (or lack thereof) from your spouse.
  2. Consult a Professional: Consider seeking legal advice to navigate the complexities of default divorce.
  3. Follow the Process: Adhere to the steps outlined above to ensure you meet all legal requirements.

Common Questions About Default Divorce

What if my spouse responds late?

If your spouse responds after the 30-day window, it may complicate the process. They can file a response and contest the default judgment, so it’s vital to act promptly.

Can I modify the default judgment later?

Modifying a default judgment can be challenging. Typically, you must show valid reasons for the modification, which can include changes in circumstances or errors in the initial judgment.

What if I can’t locate my spouse?

If you cannot find your spouse, you may need to take additional steps to serve them, such as publishing a notice in a local newspaper. Courts require proof that you have made reasonable efforts to serve divorce papers.

Conclusion

Finalizing a divorce without your spouse’s participation is entirely possible through the default judgment process. By understanding the requirements and following the necessary steps, you can expedite your divorce and begin moving forward with your life. If you need assistance or have questions about your specific situation, don’t hesitate to reach out for a free consultation at Divorce661.

For more information and resources, visit Divorce661.com.

 

California Divorce Judgment Rejected? This Is Why!

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

There are many reasons your California Divorce judgment paperwork will be rejected. In fact, there are 3 pages of reasons why your California Divorce judgment may be rejected.

But the main reason your judgement papers get rejected is because when you turn in your divorce judgment package to the court, this is the first time anybody is actually reviewing your documents. (Continue reading below video)

 

When you turn in your divorce judgment, that is the first time the court is reviewing even your initial court documents such as your summons and petition and whether you know it or not, if you did something wrong on the divorce petition, you wouldn’t know it until you turned in your judgment.

Now, while your divorce judgment can be rejected for many reasons, generally the court will review and provide you with a list of reasons why your divorce judgment paperwork is being rejected.

But, they won’t tell you what the correction is. They will just tell you what is wrong with it.

And for the first time in my life, I have seen a reject sheet that didn’t even provide the reasons why the judgment was rejected. If you watched the video, i showed you a reject sheet from a clerk that basically said the paperwork was so messed up that they weren’t going to go to the trouble of providing all the reasons why it was being rejected.

In fact, the divorce judgment reject sheet simply said that there were too many issues and many missing documents and to seek legal advice on how to prepare their divorce.

That is exactly what this person did. They hired us to review and correct and finalize their divorce case. Now, while the clerk was correct and there were many missing forms and errors, i just thought it was so lazy of the clerk to not even provide the reasons why it was rejected.

If you need assistance with your divorce judgment paperwork please give us a call. Correcting California divorce paperwork is our speciality. Or, just save yourself some trouble and hire us before you ever file a single divorce form.

You will save yourself a lot of wasted time and grief.

My Valencia Divorce Judgment Rejected 3 Times

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I hear it every day.  I tried to do my own Valencia divorce and my Valencia divorce judgment was rejected. In this case, this gal’s Valencia divorce judgment was rejected 3 times.

Why Your Valencia Divorce Judgment Is Being Rejected

This is not the most times someone has told me their . Nope, the most times someone said their Valencia divorce judgment was rejected was 7 times.  Can you imagine having your Valencia divorce judgment rejected 7 times?  Even if you have had your Valencia divorce judgment rejected once, it is enough to frustrate you completely.  You think you have completed your Valencia divorce properly and then one day, you receive the rejected Valencia divorce judgment in the mail.

Valencia Divorce Judgments Get Rejected All The Time

Valencia divorce judgments get rejected all the time.  In fact, so much that we have a service just for cleaning up the judgement and resubmitting.  But we have talked about that in many articles and if you find yourself in a situation where your Valencia divorce judgment has been rejected.

But the purpose of this article was not so much to talk about our service is it is to discuss a situation I ran into today.

So today, I received a message on Facebook from someone I knew several years ago.  Someone that worked in an office near me.  So not friends, per se, but an acquaintance would be the best way to explain it.

Anyways, I ran into her in the Ralph’s grocery store in Valencia about 6 months ago. She said she knew I was doing divorce’s and said she was having trouble with her divorce as far as the paperwork was concerned.  So she asked me for some advice and I gave her a few pointers to trouble shoot her case based upon what she told me the problems were.

Back to today.  She reached out to me via Facebook and asks me how much it would be to fix her Valencia divorce paperwork.  I give her a price via messenger and explain that we will take care of everything.  Her response was, ” It is just the judgment, everything else is fine”.

Honestly, this irritated me.

Here is why.  I know that not “everything else is fine” when you are turning in your divorce judgment.  This is because when you turn in your divorce judgment, this is the first time that the court reviews any of  your paperwork.

Everyone things all their divorce forms are correct, until they turn the judgment into the court.

Why Your Valencia Divorce Will Be Rejected Multiple Times

Here is a secret that I have told a million times.  When you turn in your judgment to the court, the clerks will find one or two maybe three reasons to reject your divorce judgment paperwork and send it back.  You fix those few mistakes and then they reject it again.

This is why we have created Valencia divorce judgment checklists.

Why do you think the judgment gets rejected so many times?  If everything is fine then why does it keep getting rejected for new reasons?

Exactly.

What also irritated me is that I also have her a second option.  I said, “pay for the California Divorce Tutor Uncontested Divorce package which is just $97 and I will walk you through wrapping up your Valencia divorce case.

I didn’t get a thank you or even a reply.

If you are not willing to spend even $97 to finalize your Valencia divorce, then I suppose your only option is to keep having your Valencia divorce judgment rejected.

Look folks, the Valencia divorce process is complicated.  You need professional help.  Otherwise you will struggle and your divorce will take years.

You are undoing a marriage of how ever many years.  Get it done right and have a professional company handle your divorce case.

Valencia Divorce Paralegal : Judgment Forms vs Marital Settlement Agreement

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Years ago our company got away from using Marital Settlement Agreements. The writing was on the wall that the court’s were going to a more uniform manner of completing the California divorce paperwork.

When you go through a Valencia Divorce, you know that the divorce paperwork is all about forms. This form for this and that form for that. The divorce courts, have for some time now, used judgment “forms” instead of what was known as a Marital Settlement Agreement.

 

The change to the California divorce forms was to make the divorce process a bit more uniform and hopefully easier to complete your divorce. What the divorce judgment forms have done is give you a way to complete your divorce judgment by using forms instead of having to draft a narrative style agreement.

The biggest issues people were having with preparing their divorce agreements is that they lacked the sufficient legal language. This caused the courts to reject judgments more often than not.

The forms solves this issues for many of the problems people were having. The divorce judgment forms have check boxes and prompts for the information you will need and most often used when completing your divorce.

Again, our company went to this format several years ago and I have spoken about this often. In fact, about a year or so ago, I had someone who became a client of our watch a video about this that I did not Youtube where I said it is better to use the judgment forms rather than the settlement agreement.

She called me to tell me that she did not take my advice and then had her divorce settlement agreement rejected by the court. This client ultimately hired us to complete her Valencia divorce case which we did using the California divorce judgment forms.

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.

Top 5 Reasons Your California Divorce Was Not Finished

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We have been doing this a long time and we have heard it all. We have helped clients finish their divorce as much as 18
years after they “thought their divorce was finalized”

This can be a nightmare for some, especially if you have already been re-married… Yes, that has happened…

But don’t worry, we can help finalize your divorce.

Lets talk about the top 10 reasons your divorce was never
finalized..

#1 Reason – You did not finish your case!

Don’t get mad at me, I wasn’t there. But really, this is an obvious reason, right?

What we have found from people who did not finish their case is that most of them THOUGHT THEIR CASE WAS FINALIZED.

#2 Reason – You went to a hearing and the judge made orders.

When you go to a hearing and the judge makes orders, they are JUST TEMPORARY ORDERS until final judgment is entered. We have found that many people think that once they go to court that the case is over when the judge makes orders. So far from the truth.

#3 Reason – Final Judgment in your case was never entered.

The judge may make some orders at a hearing or trial, but unless those orders are memorialized on a final judgment, submitted to the Court and signed by the Judge, your case is not completed.

#4 Reason – You made an error on your judgment paperwork.

This is a big one. The forms are confusing and all it takes is one mistake to fowl up the entire judgment. Some people submit their judgment and move and don’t receive notification that their divorce judgment was rejected.

Make sure you receive notice of entry of judgment!

#5 Reason – You did not comply with the divorce procedures leading up to your judgment.

This could be something as small as not completing a proof of service correctly.

There are all types of reasons your divorce was never finalized.

A lot of it will be procedural issues. Things you did wrong during the process.

But don’t worry, we can help. We can clean it up and wrap up your divorce for you.

Anywhere in California, we can assist with finishing up your case. Just give us the case number so we can see what has been done.

We will also need to see what documents you have previously filed, but we can talk about that later.

Call us at 661-281-0266.

California Divorce | We Can Review Your Divorce Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We just completed a radio broadcast today on blog talk radio and we wanted to get the word out about  how and why you need to get your divorce judgment reviewed in California before you submit to the court for review.

On the radio show we were discussing some of the issues people are having when trying to complete their California divorce on their own. When people are completing their own divorce they have a falsee sense of security because when they are turning in their form such as their summons and their petition and all the other documents nobody ever says to them that they’re doing anything wrong.

Listen to internet radio with Tim Blankenship on BlogTalkRadio

The problem with this is that when you go to file your judgment, that will be the first time anyone actually looks at the paperwork you filed. It’s not the clerk’s job to look at your paperwork when you’re turning it in. So what the clerk does is take your forms that you may have completed wrong stamps them and puts them in the courts file.

This leaves you thinking you’ve done everything right and you don’t find out you made a mistake until you’ve turned in your final divorce judgment.

So you go through the whole divorce process, fill out all the forms you think you did everything right. You turn in your judgment and several months go by and you think to yourself that you must’ve done it right. Then out of the blue, six months later, you get paperwork back from the court. “You think, “great this is going to be my completed divorce” and what you find is a three-page notice of rejection of your divorce case.

Now what you have to do is go back figure out what you did wrong. You need to go through the checklist of issues trying fix what you did. Many times you’ll find it was a procedural issue and you have to go back and not only re-file paperwork but you’re going to end up having to re-serve certain paperwork as well.

What we recommend is that prior to submitting your final judgment in cases where you have prepared your entire divorce case, that you use our service where we will review your entire divorce judgment before it goes and gets submitted to the court.

By doing this you will ensure that your paperwork is done correctly. What we do with the divorce judgment review process is we will look at everything you have done up to the point of completing your judgment. We will review all the past paperwork and if any corrections need to be done we will take care of it.  If anything needs to be re-served we will take care of it and we will review and prepare your judgment and submit it to the court for review.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce in California.

For more information about why to have your divorce judgment reviewed please listen to the podcast in this article.

Divorce Judgment Gives People The Most Trouble | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you have tried to prepare your own divorce or are considering doing so, you will learn how confusing and difficult the divorce paperwork can be.  But the worst is yet to come.

Most people will have some problems with the initial divorce documents.  They will have items rejected, not file them correctly and not fill them out right.  But the final test will be when you go to prepare the divorce judgment.

The divorce judgment is the last set of divorce documents that can be up to 25 pages long or more.  These final judgment documents give everyone  a problem.

But there is a bigger issue when completing the final divorce judgment forms and doing them wrong.  When you submit the final judgment documents, they will go into a huge pile of judgments that are also waiting to be approved.  The current wait time for your divorce judgment to be reviewed is 3 months to as long as 6 months.

This means that every time you submit your final divorce judgment, you will have to wait several months before your learn if it was done correctly or not.  I know people that attempted to complete their own divorce and have submitted their judgment 3 times.  They have been trying to complete their divorce for over 3 years.  They have been trying to get their final divorce paperwork approved for over a year.

Some people figure it out really fast that they need help and others are a glutton for punishment and keep asking for more rejection.  That was an attempt at humor, but you have to hand it to these folks that keep on trying.

Whether you have not quite gotten to the final divorce judgment phase or are one of these folks that have had the judgment rejected numerous times and are ready for help, please give us a call.

We do a lot of judgment reviews where we will take a look at your entire divorce case from beginning to end and complete and correct all the documents so they can be submitted and approved by the court.

Sole And Community Property Must Be Disposed Of In Divorce Judgment | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This article addresses the the issue of your divorce judgment being rejected with the box marked, “All sole and community property listed in the Petition must be disposed of in the Judgment”

We will discuss how to fix your divorce judgment if it has been rejected for the this reason.  We have also completed a video on how to fix your divorce judgment is it was rejected because you did all your sole and community property that was listed on the Petition was not disposed of in the divorce judgment.

When you file your divorce Petition in California there are two areas that ask you to list your property.  The first asks you to list your separate property and the second area asks you to list your community property.  You can either list the property on the divorce Petition or use one of the allowed attachments or supplement with a property declaration where you can list all your property.

Regardless how you go about listing your property, you need to make sure that you dispose of all the property in the final divorce judgment.

The issues is this.  If you list property, whether it be an asset or debt, you are telling the court that this asset or debt exists.  If you don’t tell the court who is getting the property, then this property is just left sitting there with no owner.  If the judge were to sign this judgment, it would effectively leave this asset or debt not being assigned to either the Petitioner or Respondent.

Now this may seem like a small technicality if, say for instance, the asset was small such as a bank account with $10 in it.  But what if your forgot to assign a bank account with $10,000 in it?  Now, maybe you have an agreement with your spouse regarding who is going to keep it, but if it is not listed on the judgment when the judge signs, then technically the asset or debt does not below to anybody.

To correct this issue, all you need to do is make sure all sole and community property you listed on your divorce Petition is listed on the judgment.  If you completed a marital settlement agreement, you would simply add this to the list for whom it is going to.  If you are using the judgment attachments, you would add the property to the correct property attachment indicating who is getting the asset or debt.

We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the Los Angeles Area courts.  We specialize in helping people get through the divorce process.  Give us a call for more information.

California Hybrid Divorce Judgment Checklist

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The last thing you will do in your divorce when representing yourself is to prepare the divorce judgment forms.  Which divorce judgment forms you submit will vary depending on what transpired up to this point.  Meaning whether your spouse filed a response and whether there is an agreement.

In this post we are talking about the California Hybrid Divorce Judgment and providing you with a PDF Checklist the Courts use to make sure you have included all the proper forms.

The Hybrid divorce judgment checklist will be used when you have filed a Petition, the case is proceeding by default, and the parties have a written agreement.  Yes, it is possible for you to have a written agreement even if your spouse has not filed a response.  It is called a hybrid because it is a cross between a true default case (where there is no response and no agreement) and an uncontested case (where a response was filed and there is an agreement)

Depending on the type of divorce judgement you submitting the judgment forms required to ensure your divorce is not rejected are all different.  We have several videos covering the various ways and different forms necessary to file your divorce depending on the circumstances.

If you want to download the PDF attachment you can click on this link “Hybrid Dissolution Judgment Checklist California Divorce“.  We recommend that you print it out and use it as a checklist both to ensure you have all the necessary documents, but it also lets the court know what kind of divorce judgment you are filing and will help in getting it approved and not rejected.

We are licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in divorce.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, California and can assist you with you divorce anywhere in California.