How We Are Disrupting The California Divorce Business

Posted by Tim Blankenship on


Have you heard the word “disruptive” used to describe some business’s or business models? Disruptive in this sense is defined as follows “A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network”.

Here is what comes to mind when I hear disruptive innovations.  I am sure you have heard some of these and I will give you a little comparison.

Uber’s entry into the transportation industry effecting Taxi services.

Amazon’s effect on shopping.

Pandora’s effect on how we consume music.

Airbnb’s effect on options for hotels.

You can see how the introduction of these business models effected the business’s that had operated the same way for so many years without ever making changes to their business model.

So why do I bring this up.  I believe that our business is a disruptive business to the legal profession by providing affordable legal services to people.

When I first started this business, I did not feel that this business model was disruptive to law firms and attorneys. I felt that our client base was much different than the client base for attorneys.

However, as the years have gone by, I do notice some overlap. This overlap is in the shape of people who would have otherwise used an attorney for their divorce, but because we existed, they turned to us for help.  Many of these people never needed an attorney to begin with, they just didn’t know there was any other options.  And until we came along, there really was not anyone else out there doing what we are doing.

I am not saying that we created this industry.  Not at all.  The concept of independent paralegal services has been around a long time.  It was not until 12 or so plus years ago they put a new name to it, “Legal Document Assistant” to differentiate between what we do and what a paralegal does which is to be supervised by an attorney.

Anyway, our business model is a disruptive model to the lawyer and law firm business model. Many of our clients would have otherwise used an attorney had they not found us.  But this would have only been due to lack of options.  Many did not need an attorney or legal advice, but there was no other choice than to pay the big bucks for an attorney.

Here is a perfect example of a recent conversation that was disruptive to lawyers.

I received a call from a guy who had questions about attending a Trial Setting Conference. He was living out of state so he was looking for someone to attend the hearing on his behalf because he did not want to fly in.  He had called around and spoke to some attorneys and they were quoting him between $2,500 and $5,000 for a retainer fee.  This is pretty typical.

The one attorney said the $2,500 would only pay for her appearance at the TSC and anything else would be billed at $250 per hour.

Here is what I told him.  I told him that the Trial Setting Conference is not all that important and usually lasts about 15 minutes, if that.  I then told him it is possible to get permission from the court to appear telephonically.  ==>Here is the article which discusses more on that process<==

So he followed my advice and got permission for the court call. His total cost? $86.00…

$86.00 vs. $2,500.  And that money didn’t even go to me.  That went to the Company that provides the Court Call service.

You might say I have a bad business model.  I spent 30 minutes on the phone with this guy, looked up his court case number, provided him the number to the court and to court call.

I don’t think so though. This guy will call me back as his case progresses.  How can’t he after the help that was provided.

And that is how I operate my business.  I look out for the best interest of my clients, whether clients or not and whether I will make any money or not.  I think it will give me good Karma.

And I think it is a bad practice for an attorney to not tell someone that a hearing is only going to last 15 minutes and knowing he is out of state does not have any options so tries to bilk $2,500 out of him.

This is why attorneys have the reputation they have.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Divorce Assistance Via Live Chat On Divorce661.Com

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you have been to our website you may have noticed a green tab on the right hand side about half way down that says “Live Support”  This is a chat feature we have installed to allow for people who are visiting our site an easy way to ask questions if they are either not ready to pick up the phone or possibly can’t because they are at work and can’t discuss things over the phone.

It is a pretty popular function that people take advantage of. I actually man the live chat when it is on and I am available to be at my computer to answer questions as they come in.

When people are going through divorce they have lots of questions. That is why we have so much information out there in a variety of formats like our blog, podcast and Youtube channel.  In an industry that does not like to share information or provide answers to questions for free, out clients and people who find us are happy that we are out there providing this information.

The chat feature is just another way we are trying to help people get through their divorce in California.  While I wish I had time to man it 24 hours a day, I try to at least have the chat feature available a few hours a day when I am not with clients and sitting at my desk writing motions, etc.

So feel free to jump on board and use the chat feature if you are not able to call in.

Change Of Venue California Family Law Code Of Civil Procedure 397.5

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Change Of Venue California Family Law Code Of Civil Procedure 397.5

I am helping a client with their California family law case with a change of venue in Los Angeles Superior Court. Specifically we are talking about a change of venue based upon Family Law Code of Civil Procedure 397.5

Family Law Code of Civil Procedure 397.5 is a pretty specific code section that says;
In any proceeding for dissolution or nullity of marriage or legal separation of the parties under the Family Code, where it appears that both petitioner and respondent have moved from the county rendering the order, the court may, when the ends of justice and the convenience of the parties would be promoted by the change, order that the proceedings be transferred to the county of residence of either party.

This code does not leave much to argue against. It simply says that if both parties have moved from the County that they can make the request under 397.5.

However if you look at the words they chose to use, there is some conditions. First, the language used is “May”.  The Court “May” transfer the if both the petitioner and respondent have moved from the county.

Second, the language says “when the ends of justice and the convenience of the parties would be promoted by the change”.

So here is how I would write the requests for change of venue under 397.5. I would make sure not to take advantage of this section and think it is a done deal just by saying you both live outside the county.  I think you should include things that tell the court how it will be a convenience to the parties involved and to point out how the ends of justice would be met.

For those who are opposing the change of venue under 397.5, i would make sure to point out the opposite, of course, and explain why it is not in the best interest of the parties for the venue to be changed.

Some of these reasons could be that the person changing venue is only a few miles outside of the county and not much closer to the court they are asking it to me changed to.  Another reason would be to say (if it is true) that the only reason the other party is requesting the change is because they don’t like the judge and have been receiving unfavorable results at request for orders.

Again, I am writing an opposition request for order responsive declaration for a hearing coming up in a few weeks. I will write another post which details what the court’s ultimate decision was on this issue.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Calculating Child Support With Multiple Children Schedules

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce in California, you are going to have to come up with some child support numbers if you have children.  The basic premise is that you use the court’s dissomaster software ( you won’t have access, but you will as our client) and punch in the income of the parties and the time share percentages.

It looks like this.

Dissomaster Example
Dissomaster Example

Generally it is pretty easy to figure out. You decide who has the kids what percentage of time and punch in the incomes of the parties and the the software spits out a number. The timeshare percentages are also usually pretty easy to figure out. It usually goes something like this;

There are 3 children and they are all with mom 80 percent of the time. Pretty strait forward.

But how about this scenario;

There are 3 kids and 2 of the kids spend 90% of the time with mom and 1 of the kids spends 20% of the time with mom.

So what is the average time share between the 3 kids?

This is the formula we used to make this determination.

3 kids

Mom
2 kids 90% of time = 180%
1 kid 20% = 20%

200% divided by 3 = 66.66 %

33.33 percent assigned to father as average time share percentage

What we did essentially is take the 2 kids with 90% and multiply that by 2 because there are 2 kids. Then the one kid, (1 x 20% = 20%) The total being 200% and then divided by the number of children to come up with the average time share.

I know this is not calculus, but i figured if one of our clients had a question on it then somebody else out there might as well.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Appearing By Phone At Divorce Hearing

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce in California, there may be a time during the divorce process where you need to attend a hearing, but are out of state.  Let’s say you are on vacation or perhaps you moved out of the area entirely.

When this happens there is a process where you can ask the court to appear by telephone.  Keep in mind that the court needs to approve what is called the “court call” and you need to have a good reason to be requesting the court call.

Here is how you get approval for a telephone appearance or court call:

  1. Call the clerk in the actual courtroom and advise them that you have a hearing coming up (make sure to give as much notice as possible) and are requesting approval for a court call.
  2. Let them know the reason for the request.  For instance, if you now live out of state and flying in for a 15 minute Trial Setting Conference is not financially feasible would be a good reason.
  3. If they give you the okay, make sure to get their name and ID number, because you will need it when setting up the court call.
  4. if approved, you can go to Courtcall.com and either create and online account or call them.
  5. Court Call will need all the information to your case. Which court, the department, the case number, the parties involved, the judge and the clerk that gave you the approval.  They will walk you through the steps to set up the court call.

From our experience in the past, if you don’t have a good excuse or don’t live far enough away, the clerk will not approve your court call as they would prefer to have you there in person rather than on the phone.

You can anticipate that if you live within i would say 200 miles, they won’t approve the court call.  Of course every clerk is different, but they have been very strict in the past.

If they don’t approve the court call, and the date of the appearance is not convenient, your only other option is to request the court to continue the hearing to a different date, however this would take the agreement by both parties and a joint call to the clerk.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Can I Move After Filing For Divorce In California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What do you do if you have filed for divorce in California and then learn that you will be moving out of State or even out of the County or Country?  Now, i am not talking about divorce cases where there will be numerous trials, but I am talking about a divorce case where you are mostly amicable with your spouse and trying to just get your divorce case  completed.

There are two questions I get about this issue.  The first is, ” Can i move out of the County or out of State if my divorce case is still pending?”  The answer is, “Yes.”  Keep in mind that I am not talking about you having kids and all that, just the fact that you don’t have to have your California divorce case completed prior to moving out of state.

The second question is, “Can we help someone who is living out of State to Complete their California divorce case?”  Again, the answer is, “Yes.”

If you are going to move out of the area at some point during the divorce process or find yourself not local to the court when going through a California divorce, you will need our service more than someone who is here.

Let me explain.  The only way to complete your divorce case in California is to prepare, file and serve all the necessary documents in order to complete your case.  This is challenging enough for people who are nearby and can obtain help when needed, but you are even more disadvantaged if you don’t live nearby.

Everything you do will have to be done by mail and that will be a real nightmare for sure.

So i will leave you with this.  If you are living out of state or plan on moving our of State and going through a divorce in California, we can assist you in completing your divorce case regardless of where you live.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Modifying Spousal Support Or Child Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We get a lot of calls from people who are already divorced who want to modify their spousal support or child support.  Usually the person who is paying wants to lower it and the person receiving wants to increase it.

What normally occurs is that there is a change in circumstances such as a change in income with the parties or with regards to child support, they may be changing the custodial timeshare which affects the child support amount.

Regardless of the reasons, the first thing we always do is run the numbers through the court’s dissomaster software to get a sense of whether or not it makes sense to go through with the modification.

Every once in a while, someone will call and i will run the numbers for them and we determine that if they filed the modification request that it would have actually turned out worse for them.  Sometimes is just does not make sense at that moment to file a modification and usually what we will do is tell them to wait until a certain event has happened and come up with a plan regarding the best time to file the modification.

If you have current orders in place it is always a good idea to have those handy so we can make an apples to apples comparison. We also will need to know what orders from what date we are modifying so the court knows which set of orders we are asking to change.

If you have any questions on whether or not it makes sense to file a modification for spousal support or child support, make sure to give us a call.  We can prepare your motion and declaration, file it with the court and get your court date for you.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Requesting Name Change During Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you file for divorce one of the choices you will be able to make is whether or not you want to go back to your former name. This is part of the divorce petition (FL–100) and you simply indicate that you would like the court to order that your maiden name be restored.

What is nice about this is that you won’t have to go through a legal name change process down the road if you later decide to go back to your former name.

And keep in mind that you don’t have to change your name the minute the divorce becomes final.  You could hold on and say wait until your children are grown and out of school to do so.  Just make sure to keep a copy of your judgment so when you are ready to change your name you have the necessary paperwork to do so.

Also, I wrote about the changing your name with Social Security and the possibility that they might require a certified copy.  If you are going to wait to do the name change for several years and know you will most likely change your name down the  road, it would be a good idea to get a certified copy now before your case sits to long and is placed in archives.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Changing Name With Social Security After Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you go through the divorce process, one of the options you will have is whether or not you want to change back to your former maiden name after the divorce.

The benefit of having your name converted back during the divorce is that you can use the divorce judgment as evidence of the name change which will make it easier when you go to change it with such places as the Social Security Administration.

The reason we are discussing this is because we recently had a client who said she had a problem when trying to change her name with the Social Security office.

What she reported is that the SSA office she went to were asking for a certified copy of the divorce judgment.  I was surprised to here this because over the last 4 to 5 years doing this I have never heard anyone having a problem changing their name with the Social Security office.

The issues was that this employee of the SSA was asking for a certified copy of the judgment.  The short story was our client went to Social Security, took time from work and then was turned away.  She was frustrated that they would not accept the judgment as is.

I had explained to our client that this has never been an issue and that the court does not issue certified copies of the divorce judgment when the divorce case is finished.

So i did a little research and came across the Social Security Website where is discusses what you need to make a change to your name with Social Security.  What i found it to say is that the only time you need a certified copy of anything is when producing documents and requesting an original Social Security card for the first time…

Nowhere does it say you need a certified copy of your judgment when changing your name after a divorce.  You can click here on this link to be directed to the Social Security website that discusses this issue.

In any event, i think it is wise to contact your local Social Security office you will be going to so you can verify their requirements prior to taking time off of work so you are not turned away once you are there.