Ditch Your Attorney And Start Your Santa Clarita Divorce With Us

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So you know you are going to get divorced and need some help. But who do you go to? Attorney? Mediator? Divorce document preparation company?

The answer really depends on your situation. Or does it?

The first reaction to thinking about divorce is to consider getting an attorney. But in this article we want to make a suggestion that will save you some money on your divorce.

This article is for folks who feel they will, at some point, need an attorney for their divorce. This means that you feel that no matter what, you will need someone to represent your interests and there is no way you and your spouse are going to agree on everything.

Under this assumption that you will need an attorney for your divorce, do you feel that you need to start your divorce case with an attorney? Why not start your Santa Clarita Divorce using our divorce document preparation service instead and save some money on your divorce.

Attorneys do two things. They represent you in court and give legal advice. Do you need either one of these right away? Perhaps you need an attorney consultation about your divorce, but very few cases, if any, go immediately to court.

The initial steps to divorce are all about completing paperwork. Filing out forms, filling them with the court and completing mostly procedural steps such as serving the divorce papers on your spouse. Using an attorney to complete the routine tasks can cost you a small fortune.

What we suggest is this. Go ahead and get a divorce consultation with an attorney. Get your legal questions answered. Then give us a call so we can start the divorce for you. We will prepare your summons and petition, file it with the court and assist you in getting your spouse served. Then, we would help you prepare your financial disclosures. These two steps do not require a law degree so why would you pay lawyer fees for this service?

We estimate the time it takes to complete these 2 steps if done with an attorney to about 5 hours of work. If you take the average cost of a divorce attorney at say $300 per hour, you are looking at $1,500 just to get these initial documents prepared. Wouldn't you rather spend that money on your attorney when he or she is doing what they do best, instead of paying them to prepare forms?

What you do is ultimately up to you. We just wanted to throw this out there for you to consider.

As licensed and bonded legal document assistants specializing in divorce in Santa Clarita, we help people save money on their divorce. Let us get you as far as we can before you spend the big money on an attorney.

And you never know. Maybe you will find that you never needed a divorce attorney in the first place.

How Can I Determine If Spouse Filed For Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I was asked this question over the weekend.  “How can I determine if my spouse has filed for divorce?” If you have not been served divorce papers yet, how do you know if a divorce case has been filed.  I thought this was a good question.

There are a couple of reasons why someone would want to find out if their spouse had filed for divorce.  Perhaps, your spouse has indicated that they filed or are going to file, but you have not been served any divorce papers yet.  You might be feeling that they are delaying and you plan on filing if they have not yet.

Another reason you might be trying to see if your spouse filed for divorce is out of plain curiosity.  Perhaps the two of you have been having disputes and you have a feeling that your spouse filed for divorce, but your not sure.

Regardless of your reasons for wanting to determine if your spouse filed for divorce, there is only one way to do this.

There is no public database that you can access from your home computer that will let you know if your spouse has filed for divorce.  The only way to check from home is if you have a case number.  Obviously, we do not have a case number in this scenario.

So what you would have to do then i go down to the actual courthouse.  You can go to the local courthouse and have the clerk search by name and date of birth for your name or your spouses name to see if they have filed for divorce.

In Los Angeles County, the family law clerks office has a computer available for public use where you can access the files and search for yourself.

Once you locate the name you are looking for, you can see what the case number is.  Once you have the case number you can use that to access the online case summary off the court website from any computer.

Keep in mind that there is a delay from the time the case is filed until the time it shows up in the courts computer system.

 

Divorce Not A Simple Open And Shut Case In Los Angeles

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

While we understand and know the divorce process inside and out, there are always cases that throw us a curveball. This just goes to show that sometimes divorce is not a simple open and shut case.

An example of this, is a client we have been helping for about 6 months. When he called us he had been working on getting divorced for about 5 years. They both had slacked off on completing the divorce, but he had found a new love and now wanted to get things finished up. (we get a lot of clients this way)

The problem was that the wife was just not as motivated to get things done. When this happens, where one spouse is not doing the necessary steps, it is just a matter of getting the court involved so the court can tell the parties what they need to do. So this is what we did.

We started off by filing a request for trial setting. This is what you do if you need to get the court involved to help move things forward. The form is filed and a court date will be set. The parties are notified of the court date. This date will be the first time you speak to a judge and he or she will see where things are at and tell the parties what is to be completed before the next hearing.

Several hearings later, we finally have the last court appearance coming up in a few weeks. The judge advised what documents were to be completed prior to the hearing.

The good news is that this last hearing should prove to be the finalization of the divorce. The judge asked that the final disclosures be completed and that the judgment forms be prepared.

When he appears at this last hearing, the judge will accept the judgment and the divorce should be completed.

When we first started with this client, it was supposed to be an easy uncontested case. It turned out not to be so easy, but we were able to get him through it.

That is our promise when you sign up to work with us. We know not every divorce case is going to be perfectly smooth. Whatever happens, we will work to get your through the process.

The reason we are able to do this is because we have worked for the court system before, specifically in divorce, and understand what has to be done to move a case forward.

Are You Looking For A Full Service Divorce Firm In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are You Looking For A Full Service Divorce Firm In Santa Clarita

If you are looking for do it yourself type company to prepare your divorce documents, we are not it.

This is because we are a full service divorce company that will take care of everything that has to do with your divorce.

We take care of preparing all the divorce documents personally. Nothing is left up to you to prepare and we don’t ask you to fill out some questionnaire. Your divorce documents will be professionally prepared, exactly as if you were in a law firm (except for the cost!)

We will file all the documents with the court. There are many steps to getting divorced and we will file all the necessary documents along the way.

We were recently asked by a client if our service included postage when we mailed out documents to our clients. She said she would be happy to pay for postage if our costs did not account for that.

I thought it was funny, and so wrote her a funny email saying that she has hired a full service company and that we take care of everything. And this even includes the postage of mailing documents back and forth between our clients and the courts. And it’s a good thing too, because we mail a lot of documents on a daily basis and are certainly helping keep the post office from declaring bankruptcy.

So if you want to work with a great company that will take care of everything involving your divorce, make sure to give us a call.

If you are looking for some inferior company who is going to nickel and dime your are make you do most of the work, we are not that company.

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Who Is Going To Take The Animals During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Have you thought about who is going to take the animals when you get divorced?

Believe it or not, animals are property that need to be divided, just like your home, cars and bank accounts. But unlike the property, there is no way to get 50% of the dog, so there is going to have to be some discussion on who is getting Fido.

Most people don’t address the issue of who is getting the family pet. In fact, we don’t usually address this in the judgment, but you certainly can.

I was asked, just this week, how the issues about their clients dogs can be addressed and when.

As mentioned above, dogs, cats and hamsters need to go to someone. In most cases, you can simply decide who is going to get the pets.

In other cases, you can decide to include who is getting the dog by including them on the divorce judgment forms and assigning them to one of the parties, just like you do all the other property.

On the divorce judgment forms, there is two sections for dividing up property. If the dog was the family pet, this would be considered community property. You would simply list the pet on the community property section under either the petitioner or respondent.

Dogs are considered chattel which is a fancy legal term for property. You can research that term if your interested.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document prep firm in Santa Clarita that specialize in divorce and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

High Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Good For Business – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

High Cost Of Divorce Attorneys Good For Business – Santa Clarita

As divorce attorneys in Santa Clarita have less and less clients and more and more competition from other attorneys, the only way to keep the money rolling in the door is to keep raising their prices.

I have learned that the more divorce attorneys raise their prices, the more business they drive toward our affordable divorce service in Santa Clarita.

There comes a point where you just have to say “enough” and many are. Those who used to go to attorneys are now realizing that they don’t need and attorney to get divorced.

This has always been the case, but folks have not been aware that there are alternate methods of getting divorced.

That is where we come in and spend countless hours a week writing on our blogs until our fingers are bleeding, screaming at the top of our lungs about our affordable divorce serivce.

And guess what? It is starting to work.

As the word gets out that folks can complete their divorce with us for a fraction of the cost of hiring an attorney, and have the forms completed exactly as the attorney would have, our business grows by leaps and bounds.

People have reached that threshold where they are not willing to pay for a service that has no value. When you over price your service, you drive clients right out the door.

As our divorce services are affordable, clients find we are a great value, not just because of our prices, but because of the level of service we provide.

Give us a call to learn more about our divorce services in Santa Clarita.

 

Communication Is Key During Divorce – Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Communication Is Key During Divorce – Santa Clarita

If you thought communication was important during the marriage, it is even more important during divorce.

You decided to get divorced and figured you were done having to speak to your spouse, right? Not so fast. If you want to get through your divorce in an amicable way, you are going to have to communicate with your spouse.

The divorce process is about making decisions about the final terms of your divorce. This obviously is not going to work if you are not talking to each other.

In fact, the answer to not speaking to one another is to hire an attorney so they can do the talking for you. In the end you will have to make all the decisions, but you will just be paying an attorney several hundred dollars an hour to speak on your behalf.

This is obviously not what we are shooting for when working with you to assist you in your divorce.

So when clients ask me if they should speak to their spouse when they are going through divorce, the answer is yes. The more you communicate the less chance you will need an attorney and the less chance you will end up in court.

We can help you get through your divorce and assist you in communicating with your spouse. We will lay out a plan to help pave the way to make it easier to get through the process of getting divorced.

Remember, it may be hard to speak to your spouse, but it will be much worse if you have to hire an attorney and get stuck with a huge bill at the end.

Should I Speak With My Spouse During Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Should I Speak With My Spouse During Divorce

Not all divorces start out amicably and no divorce is going to be completely easy. It is normal to not want to discuss the issues with your spouse.

But communication is key if you ever expect to get through your divorce. How else are you going to resolve your issues if you are not speaking to each other?

I know it might be easier to ignore and avoid dealing with what is happening, but things will only get worse if you don’t communicate with your spouse during divorce. It is very much like a toothache. Ignore it and it will always get worse and cost you more money.

I have a client who falls into this category. He just wants to get divorced without speaking to his wife. His wife has been reaching out to him in an attempt to discuss the issues, but he has refused to communicate with her. Going as far as changing his cell phone number.

He asked me if he should be speaking to her and that she said unless he does, she will be forced to hire an attorney.

As I am saying in this article, I told him that communication is important if he expects to get through the divorce process. Furthermore, if he does not speak to her, what other choice does she have but to hire an attorney who will communicate for her.

I know it is not easy, but unless you communicate with your spouse during divorce things will only get worse.

In this case, if the wife hires an attorney, not only will the divorce end up costing them a bundle of money, but it will most certainly muddy the relationship further and make coming to a compromise on the issues of their divorce that much more difficult.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation company that specializes in divorce. We are headquartered in Santa Clarita and serve all of Los Angeles County.

We Help Solve Divorce Problems In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We Help Solve Divorce Problems In Santa Clarita

When you work with our divorce document preparation firm, you get more than just expertly prepared divorce forms. You also get our assistance in helping you solve your problems related to divorce.

When we say problems, we are referring to questions you have about divorce and the divorce process.

The problems you face during divorce can be many. Most often the problems you will face will have to do with a couple of issues. These problems are usually about money, child support, child custody and child visitation.

All of these are tied to money. The first being spousal support. Many couples have questions about how much, if any, spousal support will need to be paid. We are able to help you resolve this problem by helping you get assistance from the court facilitators office. They will go over your incomes and explain how spousal support works so you can come to an agreement on this problem.

What about problems related to your children. Problems related to your children can be resolved with the courts mediation services which we can arrange for you. Again, this is also about money. How much one parent has their children can have some impact on the amount of any child support may need to be paid.

The courts mediator is a neutral third party who can help you come up with a parenting plan to determine how to want to arrange the issues about your children.

We are also able to help you with the remainder of your divorce problems. Because of our experiences working with the courts and understanding of how the divorce process works, we can help you navigate the courts system.

Divorce is all we do, day in and day out. When you want to work with the most experienced divorce firm in Santa Clarita, please give us a call.