No Need To Figure Everything Out Before Filing For Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are you one of those people that have to have everything figured out before you do something.  Well, when it comes to getting a divorce, that is not something you have to worry about so much.

When folks call me, many of their questions are about the end game.  Meaning that they are thinking about how they are going to reach a final agreement on their divorce.  While it is good to have an understanding of how you want the divorce to conclude, it is not necessary to have every single detail figured out before filing for divorce.

If you are trying to figure out every last detail of your divorce before you file, you will never end up filing for divorce.  I recommend that you break down the divorce process into a couple of steps so the divorce process is more manageable.

This is how we operate our divorce files for our clients.  The first thing we do is only complete the necessary divorce documents that are required to get a case number issued.  There will generally only be 3 or 4 forms you have to complete in order to file your divorce with the court.  That is all you should be focusing on at first.

Then, after the divorce is filed, focus on getting your spouse served.  These  two steps are the first thing you should do.  Having your spouse served is what will start the 6 month cooling off period.

Now that this is done, you can start on completing your financial disclosures.  This is your preliminary declaration of disclosure and is where you will list all the assets and debts of your marriage.  This will be used as a template so the parties understand what there is to divide.  Until you have completed your financial disclosures, there is no sense trying to come to an agreement on the division of property.

I have some clients who call me and say they are waiting to file for divorce until they have a complete agreement.  Again, while it is a good idea to be thinking of what you want out of the divorce, don’t let this stop you from filing for divorce and getting the process started.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document assistant company in Santa Clarita and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

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.

Conduct Due Dilligence Before Hiring Divorce Paralegal In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Conduct Due Dilligence Before Hiring Divorce Paralegal In Santa Clarita

Today I want to talk about the importance of conducting due diligence research before hiring a divorce paralegal firm in Santa Clarita or anywhere in Los Angeles County for that matter.

Yesterday I received a call from a new client who was doing just that. Actually, the client who called me the day before called and we discussed how we can help them. The next day, I received a call from her relative who was interested in vetting me and my company.

I wish everyone would do this before hiring someone to help them with their divorce. It would save people so many problem and it would help me as well.

There are a lot of scam artists and folks calling themselves paralegals that have no business offering divorce services. These folks will take your money, do a bad job and leave you hanging. Be wary of the low cost option when it comes to divorce services.

So how can you make sure you are working with a legitimate company? Here are a few ways you can check out a company before you ever pick up the phone.

  1. Conduct a search for reviews or complaints online. For instance you could Google “Reviews for SCV Legal Doc Assist Santa Clarita”. When I did, Yelp was the first to come up and show our 5 Star reviews.
  2. Read the client testimonials on thier website. Our testimonials are actual client testimonials, but beware of companies making them up. Usually you can tell if the owner made them up on their own.
  3. Make sure they are licensed and bonded. In order to provide legal services, one must be a “Legal Document Assistant” Anyone who calls themselves a “Paralegal” is not allowed by law to work for you without attorney supervision nor can they create a client relationship directly with you.
  4. Read the content on their website or blog to learn about the company (if they even have one). Read the “about” page. I write all our articles on www.divorce661.com and other blogs. They are written from personal experience with current clients and are very informative. Also check to see if they publish their pricing. We do!
  5. Watch a few YouTube videos, if they have any. We have almost 100 videos about divorce and the divorce process.
  6. Listen to any Podcasts they may have done. We routinely broadcast a Podcast “audio” feed and upload it to our blog. Here we offer tips and tricks about divorce.

Now that you have done this, which would probably take you all of 15 minutes, you can pick up the phone and call the company.

The people that do some or all of these things makes for a much more productive conversation  They already know about me, what I look like, sound like, etc. Now we can get down to business and talk about how we can help you get through this thing they call divorce.