How To File Divorce Papers By Mail | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To File Divorce Papers By Mail | Santa Clarita Divorce

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal doc Assist. We’re a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service, specializing in divorce.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to file papers by mail with the courts.

The courts are very good, believe or not, about accepting your fillings by mail. So if you’re not near your local family law branch, for instance, we’re located at Santa Clarita and the Santa Clarita Valley does not have a law court, believe it or not, as big as we are.

So our closest court would be the San Fernando branch and personally, I don’t like driving down to San Fernando if I don’t have to, I do on occasion to volunteer and so forth. But for the most part, I mail file all of my documents.

So if you’re working with us, you can expect that all of the forms that I file would be by mail. Unless I have a whole bunch of new cases to go down there and file, I will, but other than that, I like to mail my documents in.

So, in this article, I wanted to show you how you are going to go about doing that. Now it’s not going to be much different that if you were to file your papers by driving down there. But the way that gas cost these days, you can put a 44 cents stamp on it and think you’re going to be better off.

When you want to file by mail, let’s talk about filing your initial divorce paperwork.

Let’s say, you just want to start your divorce case and you haven’t filed anything, you don’t have a case number or anything. So, what you’re going to want to do is get your summon and your petition and all the forms you need to file for divorce.

You’re going to hole punch them, staple them and make copies (you want to mail down 2 copies of every form). What you’ll do is you’ll take, say your summons, hole punch it and this would be your original. You’re going to sign it and you’re going to make 2 copies. You’re going to take those, the copies of everything.

You’re going to have your summons in two copies, your petitions in 2 copies and any other form that’s required by your court. You’re going to do the original, hole punched, and then you’re going to have 2 copies. You’re going to mail that to the court.

Now, the court is going to get that. We’re talking to government officials, so let’s make sure we tell them what we want them to do. I always send a cover letter down with anything I file, even if it’s a proof of service, I send a letter;

I just write a letter and say:

To: Clerk of The Court, Please find the enclosed documents, if it’s a new case, please find a new case for a family law filing. Enclosed you’ll find the following documents: summons, petition (and anything else you’re sending them and then ask them to please send you a conformed copy of the filing in the self-addressed stamped envelope).

So what that means is yes, you’re going to need to send a self-addressed stamped envelope, if you expect to get anything else and know that you’ve sent them back in the court. They’re not going to mail it to you otherwise, you’ll have to go down and pick it up.

So make sure you send down, with your cover letter and all you originals and copies, a self-addressed stamped envelope with sufficient postage for the items you’re going to mail back.

Now remember, you’re going to have copies of up to 5 forms, you have 2 copies coming back to you, so you may want to weigh those or just throw in a bunch of stamps to make sure you’re going to get those back because it’s really important that you want to make sure you get your filing back because once you send a new case down there, a good luck having them located if you don’t get your copies back.

You can file your papers by mail and this includes, again, like we just discussed, your entire new case or if you have proof of service or anything else you serve, just make sure you send a cover letter, the original which is hole punched, copies and a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ve never had a problem filing divorce cases or getting copies of filed documents that I’m filing with them and getting copies back from the court.

Again, this is Tim Blankenship. I’m a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service. I specialize only on divorce.

We are centrally located in Santa Clarita, California. We can help you anywhere across Los Angeles and California, please give me a call (661-281-0266) or you can find us at divorce661.com.

Who Can Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Who Can Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

Hi there! This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. We’re a licensed and bonded legal preparation service and we do specialize in the divorce process.

Today, we are going to talk about who can be a process server, who can you use to serve your divorce papers essentially.

I wanted to give you the court’s version of who can be a process server and what they consider to be about process’ service when it comes to your divorce.

Now, what we’re talking about here is serving the initial divorce documents, so this would be your summons and petition in particularly. So, looking at the court’s website, we’ve identified a process server as the ‘server’ or the ‘process server’ can be a friend or relative, a coworker, a county sheriff or marshal, professional process server, or anyone over 18 who is not part of the case.

So, when it comes to divorce, this is a very important aspect right here. This essentially means, you cannot serve your own divorce paper, you cannot hand your divorce paperwork to your own spouse. It may make the most sense especially in many cases where husband and wife are still living together.

When you file for divorce it may seem silly to have to get someone else, another third party, to hand the paperwork done for them so they can then hand the paperwork to your spouse, but if you don’t do that, you’re not going to have an effective process of service. You cannot serve your own spouse—I just want to make that very clear.

Make sure that the person is not party to the case. In divorce, if it’s not you or your husband, it can pretty much be anyone else as long as they’re 18 years of age and make sure that they know how to fill out the proof of service of summons.

When you work with our service, our legal document preparation service for your divorce, we will take care of all that. In fact, we don’t even like to use the process of having a process server go out or using the proof of service.

We use what’s called a Notice and Acknowledgement of Receipt. It’s an easier way and a cost effective way because you don’t have to hire a process server to server the divorce papers.

If you’re looking for a professional, licensed and bonded legal preparation service, please give us a call. You can find us at divorce661.com, or any of our websites. We do specialize in the divorce process. We provide a 100% online divorce solution, so any in Los Angeles County or California for that matter, we would be happy to help you out. You can reach us at 661-281-0266.

I Need Help With My Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you have thought or uttered the words, “I need help with my divorce papers“, you are not alone.

The divorce process is confusing and frustrating at best, if you are trying to self prepare your own divorce.  While not recommended, it is possible.

Many people need help with their divorce.  Some realize that right from the get-go and others struggle through many phases of the paperwork before throwing in the towel.

Getting help with your divorce papers is a smart thing to do.  Not only because I own t his business, but because I see so many people struggle for months and sometimes years attempting to do their divorce papers on their own, only to realize they have wasted  countless hours and days of their life and  still are no closer to finishing  their divorce.

We recommend you get help immediately.  But if you started the divorce process and then later realized that you need help with your divorce papers, that is okay too.  It is never to late to get help with filing your divorce papers.

The folks that have come to us after spending several grueling months attempting it on their own feel a great sense of relief when they turn their divorce over to us to complete.  Some of the best compliments we receive are during the first meeting in our office or conversation on the phone with our clients. They can’t believe how much time they have wasted trying to complete their own divorce.

They say they are so glad the talked to us and are using our service.  They realize how much they really did not know about the divorce process and how we made it so clear and understandable and broke things down in plain English for them.

If you find yourself needing help with your divorce papers in Santa Clarita or anywhere in Los Angeles, please give us a call.  We would be happy to discuss helping you prepare your divorce and pick up where you left off.

Should You Sign Divorce Papers You Have Been Mailed – Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So there is a lot of confusing about divorce, that much we can agree on. That is why i write all these articles on divorce and record videos. It is all about getting information out there to lessen the confusion.

Today we are talking about what you should do if you are mailed divorce papers and asked to sign for them. The reason we are explaining this is because people think that if they sign papers they received, that it means that they agree. This is not true.

What we are talking about here is the very first papers filed in a divorce. These first document have to be personally served on your spouse. But there is a way that you can simply mail the forms to your spouse if they are willing to sign a document which says they received them.

But here is the problem. Spouses receive the divorce documents and think by signing anything that they are agreeing to what is contained in the divorce papers. This could not be further from the truth.

The form we are talking about here is the notice of acknowledgment of receipt. It is a form one signs to acknowledge having received the paperwork. It says nothing to the effect that by signing you agree to anything. In fact, it says right on the form that this is not a response form and if you disagree with anything in the divorce papers you were served, that you need to file a response.

Let me help drive this point home. I previously stated that these initial divorce documents normally have to be served. So if your spouse hires a process server and has someone hand deliver them to you, does that mean you agree to what is contained in the divorce papers? Of course not.

Signing the notice of acknowledgment of receipt is not different. The only reason not to sign that you received the divorce papers is to be difficult. At least that is what i tell my clients when they say their spouse won't sign indicating they received the papers.

If people would just take a few seconds to actually read the forms they will realize that what i am saying it true.