How To Determine Life Insurance Needs After Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Determine Life Insurance Needs After Divorce

Tim: So we had a big picture everything that should be looked at when going through Divorce.

We talked about term insurance for covering the spousal support. We talked term insurance for covering potentially the childrens college education or maybe paying off their student loan debt or–

Jon: Exactly.

Tim: What are other things would you throw in there?

If I were talking about insurance today and I was going through a Divorce. And I’ve been married for 19 years.

And two kids are still minors, what things would you say, ‘Tim, if you want to make sure that they’re taken care of aside from the college and the spousal support, what are the things would you throw in there?

Paying off the house maybe or –

Jon: Right, and really it will depend on the situation your spouse is in. But yes, anything like that when there’s a foreseeable expense in the future might be a really good thing to add into the life insurance.

There’s also retirement, if you think about it this way, now the expectation is you’re going to keep working.

And you’re going to keep building the retirement fund. So even though we might replace your income or your child support, that retirement fund doesn’t keep building anymore.

So one of the other things that you can do with life insurance is let’s say, ‘Gee, if something happened and I can’t build that retirement fund, you use the life insurance to build that retirement fund.’

So that’s it. That’s a bigger piece. I mean it can add up to a bigger number but it’s an important factor because I don’t think people think they think well, ‘Gee, I just want to puff my house.’

Well, that’s great when you puff your house, then what? How are you still going to meet your monthly expenses?

And how are you ultimately going to be able to take yourself on the work force?

Tim: Right.

Jon: So I think looking at more than just even the current expenses, it’s looking for the future. What other cost you may have or what other investments you want to make?

And to making sure that the life insurance is there to take the place if your income can’t.

California Divorce & Life Insurance Considerations

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce & Life Insurance Considerations

Tim: Let’s talk life insurance. Alright! Now this is big. There’s a lot of moving parts to this.

Jon: Absolutely!

Tim: Right. This is probably going to be the most we’re going to have to talk about here. I mean some of this, there’s going to be an overlap but there are issues of support and potential that to protect people.

Jon: Right. So one of the key issues here, one of the things that people probably are thinking about is most likely those people have life insurance policies have named their spouses as the beneficiary.

Meaning that if there’s something happened to them their spouse will be the one to get the proceeds from the life policy.

Obviously, if you’ve gone through a Divorce and as you’re going through the Divorce, you may want to make this change immediately.

You might say, ‘I don’t want that person to be, well I’m going to pull them off my life policy.’

On California at least you’re not able to pull your spouse off as a beneficiary without their signature prior to Divorce.

Okay?

Tim: And I’ll add to that.

Jon: Okay.

Tim: When you file Divorce on the summons itself, there are what’s called the Automatic Restraining Orders. Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders are going to effect.

They’re called ATROS. And they are Restraining Orders to restrain you from certain actions.

And one of them is removing your spouse as a beneficiary off of any type of policy whether it’d be life, as a beneficiary changing even auto insurance policies, beneficiaries on investments, none of that can be done without signature, without their approval, and without their knowledge until the Divorce is absolutely finalized.

Jon: Right?

Tim: So—

Jon: And even when it is finalized because maybe there’s the Temporary Restraining Order by the time and the insurance companies themselves are going to look and see if it was a spouse, you send them a form, they’re going to ask you to either have the spouse’s signature on it or see that the Divorce has been finalized and a copy of the final Divorce paperwork…

Tim: Right.

Jon: …in order to justify it. So everybody is working on the same page.

Tim: To protect each other and make sure that people are doing things they shouldn’t be.

Jon: Right.

Tim: Yes.

Beneficiary Options For Children During Divorce – California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Beneficiary Options For Children During Divorce – California Divorce

Tim: As it pertains to life insurance and with having young children and making them the beneficiaries, going through a Divorce, what are some of the options folks have?

Can they assign other beneficiaries or how does that work and how does that ultimately get transfer?

Jon: Yes, so changing beneficiaries for some is very easy. And it’s usually one page form. You say, ‘Now I want my brother to be the beneficiary.’ and you sign it.

It’s that simple.

So what we usually encourage people to do is that they’re not going to go down the road of some sort of trust, is to name a family an adult family member who’d be the one that they would expect to handle their affairs when something happened to them.

And so that maybe, I mean it’s still be a parent depending on how old you are. It maybe a brother or sister or somebody or an extremely close friend but that’s your choice to make.

And the changing it like I said is very simple.

Tim: Simple!

Jon: And then if a year from now you know you’re going to fight with your brother and you don’t want him to be the one, you change it again.

There’s no cost to changing beneficiaries. And it’s done within like a week or two. So it’s a very simple process.

Process Of Divorce In Torrance, CA Torrance Divorce Paralegal

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Process Of Divorce In Torrance, CA Torrance Divorce Paralegal

I want to explain the process of Divorce. What is the Divorce Process in Torrance California?

As you know there’s a Court House in Torrance that handles Divorce cases we service as a Paralegal Firm in the Torrance, California Court House as far as Divorces are concerned.

So I want to explain to you what is the Divorce process, what would we do for you if you hire us to help you with your Divorce in Torrance? What will that look like?

So first of all when you contract for services with us, we will take care of everything from start to finish.

All the forms, go down the Torrance Court House, file them, help with service with your spouse either by mail or personal whatever needs to happen, all the financial disclosures all the agreements from A to Z we’ll complete your case.

But initially the Divorce process looks like this, filling out that initial documents. One of you needs to decide who is going to be the petitioner.

Get and take it down all the completed documents after we get your signature. And take them down to Torrance, getting the case number issued and then that needing to be serve on your spouse.

Step two is pretty much financial disclosure stage. The court wants you guys to exchange information about how much you make, where you work, the bank account information, any assets and debts, cars, debts and credit cards and all that sort of things.

All that needs to be disclosed so you guys can figure out what’s going to be fair and equitable on the division of property.

Once you guys figured out what’s fair and equitable you guys let us know what’s that’s going to be. And we put that down in the appropriate court forms and submit what’s called your judgment.

Now keep in mind if you have trouble, if you’re unable to come to certain agreements it doesn’t mean you have to run out and hire an attorney.

There are other services such as Mediation that we can set you up with. Affordable mediation by the way and help someone sit down with you can come up with those agreements.

So you guys can come up with an agreements, we can put down in paper and it can be done without having the extra cost of hiring an attorney or having to litigate your case.

So that’s pretty much how the divorce process in Torrance works. But the initial steps just to get the initial documents completed.

We just need a few minutes on the phone with you. And you don’t have to come to our office.

We’ll get those signatures from you which can be fax to us and we’ll take them down to the court get then filed and that’s kind of have things start off with the Divorce Process in Torrance, California.

Please give us a call for free consultation. I’d love to help you out with your paperwork with your Divorce.

Uncontested Divorce Service In Torrance, CA Divorce Paralegal

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Uncontested Divorce Service In Torrance, CA Divorce Paralegal

Today we’re talking about Divorce in Torrance, California. We’re talking about our Uncontested Divorce Process for Torrance California.

We’re licensed and bonded Legal Document Preparation Firm. We specialize in Divorce.

So we are an affordable Divorce Paralegal Firm helping folks in Torrance, California.

I want to briefly let you know a little bit about what it is we can do for you and explain the Uncontested Divorce Process.

So Uncontested Divorce is where you and your spouse are working at least somewhat towards an agreement.

You’re not hiring an attorney, you’re not going to court, you may not be in total agreement but you know you want to get divorce, you want to save some money and you don’t want to have to hire attorneys and go down that path.

Those are the folks that we’re talking about here. At least, we bring that up because we are a licensed and bonded Document Preparation Firm specializing in Divorce in Torrance.

We are that company that’s going to save you some money. Help you all the way through your Divorce process.

In fact do everything a law firm would do for you except give legal advice and represent you in court.

Again, we’re talking about the cases that are uncontested. And we will do everything they can do. We have all the forms that they have.

We have all the paperwork they have, all the software that they have and what the courts have. So we can get you through your entire divorce case for one low flat fee.

We are a neutral party that works both with you and your spouse to get your case complete. And we do everything from filling out the forms, we’ll take care of your filled out forms.

And we’ll go down to the Torrance Court House and we will file them for you. We will get your case number issued.

And then when you talk about serving those on your spouse which we can simply do by mail.

After that we need to fill out the financial disclosures for both of you and your spouse, get everything on the table and what needs to be divided and how you’re going to divide it up.

And then put those agreements down on paper which is called the judgment. That’s essentially the process.

Now in between there you can hit road bumps. You can have some disagreements or misunderstandings or upset regarding certain things, we know this is Divorce. It’s not going to be completely amicable.

But the idea of uncontested divorce is that you’re working on working it out whether that be you and your spouse sitting at the kitchen table, whether that means us having to set you up with additional resources like Mediation to have a professional third party Mediator sit down with you and talk about how we can come to a resolution and all these issues.

And that’s how uncontested divorce cases work. When you go through an uncontested divorce cases in Torrance, the idea is that there’s no real winners or no real loosers that it’s a fair division of property that you’re happy with the orders regarding the children and child support and spousal support, that’s what it’s all about.

And but mostly about saving money. I want to get this video out there if you’re thinking about going through Divorce in Torrance you could give us a call.

You don’t even have to come to our offices. We have clients all throughout California. We can do this right over the phone or via email.

And we still will go to your Court House in Torrance and we’ll file. So you won’t have to go to court at all.

As long as it’s amicable and you’re not going to see a judge it’s not required. We can type up all the agreements.

And you don’t have to come to our office or go to the court house.

And we’ll even save some money on court fees if you come to us before filing, there’s a way we can save you a bunch of money on court fees.

Uncontested Divorce cases in Torrance, it’s our specialty. All we do is Divorce throughout California.

If you live in Torrance, California give us a call. We love to help you with your Divorce. We offer free consultations.

I want to talk to you specifically about your specific circumstances. And kind of walk you through how you see that playing out and moving through the process with you and your spouse.

And then get things started for you when you’re ready to move forward with your Divorce in Torrance.

Give us a call when you’re ready.

California Divorce – Should You Use 2 Realtors To Sell Your Home

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce – Should You Use 2 Realtors To Sell Your Home

Connor: Everybody has to adhere to it.

Tim: I even heard of each spouse having a separate realtor. Have you heard of that?

Connor: I have.

Tim: It sounds like a nightmare.

Connor: It comes up. And again now you have and it makes a lot of sense in some cases depending on the relationships and how easy the break apart is going to be.

But yes, we encounter that where the Mrs. is going to have their own agent of representing them. And then the Mr. is going to have their own agent representing them.

And that now you have more chefs in the kitchen. It really creates a lot of drama which brings me to something important.

You need to find out the source. If you’re being referred to an agent, if you’re in the middle of the Divorce, you’ve been referred to by an agent and that agent is telling you and they’ll say, ‘Okay, this is the person that we need to use.’

I would ask straight up the person that I am divorcing from, I would say ‘Well, what’s your relationship with this person?’ because everybody is always concerned with somebody making more money.

If there’s a $150,000 profit after everything is finished in the Divorce, each spouse is always thinking at the back of their mind ‘I hope my Mr. isn’t taking me for granted.’ or ‘My Mrs.—‘  because typically it’ll all comes down to money, I’m sure.

Tim: Usually with anything I mean money the spousal support, child support and all usually it has something to do with money.

California Divorce – Selling Your Home At A Later Date

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

 California Divorce – Selling Your Home At A Later Date

Tim: I skipped one of our four. I missed see the slides. Sell at a later date.

So if I had four options. You had another about the rental. That was good.

So sell, refinance, keep existing mortgage, sell at later date or rent it out. We have people doing that.

But selling at a later date, we have folks that having their primary residence or a vacation home –

Connor: I’m so sorry!

Tim: …or a rental of some sort, that they’re making rents on. Okay, let’s say, it’s a rental or any of those types of homes.

And either the values not there or they want to hopefully go up in value so they can sell.  So we have a specific circumstance with a client, vacation house, they make rent.

It’s like an Aspen or something like that Big Bear, I don’t know. And they rented out and they make money up but they sold, there’s not enough value. They overpaid for it back when real estate is blooming.

So they want to wait several years before they sell it. That was the agreement. We’ll continue to share the rents and ends the property together but we don’t want to sell it because it’s going to be at lost.

So they short sale it. They don’t want to ruin their credit. So that’s it.

Another option is to sell at a later date. And usually you have to make sure you have enough language in your Divorce agreement, that doesn’t leave us so open-ended that you can’t go to court and say, ‘It’s time to sell.’

Connor: Enforcing.

Tim: It has enough language to have some enforceability. So it can’t be totally open-ended.

So you need to say something to the fact of like in this case we said, within five years the parties will meet and confront on a yearly basis to determine their appraised value for purposes of selling, not to cover the fees and so forth of selling the property and without a loss.

So that way if you get to that point and it’s there. And the other party said, ‘No, I just want to keep it. You can go back to the court and say, ‘No, this is what we agreed to.’ and get the court intervene.

Connor: Yes, I think that sell at a later date thing even though and I totally get that scenario. It’s tough.

I mean how do we know? Again just like back in ‘06 and ’07 shared properties are going up hand over fist like money was free.

And been practically wise but the whole general consensus even from some really brainy financial advisers out there was its trend was going to continue but it didn’t.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: So it fell off. Sell at a later date, tough. I know any agent would always be there for their client.

And if in fact that’s what they decided to do in a future, they would. But again you have to ask yourself where are we going as a market?

Where are we trending? What possible obstacles would there be in the future? It’s a tough scenario.

Tim: Yes. I mean it sound as already a negative equity. And it was going to be a short sale now.

And let’s say it doesn’t go up in value. And they sell it five years later. And at least they’ve got some rents I suppose or—

Connor: Yes.

Tim: Let’s give it a quick sale than throw it away, I’m sure the plus is that maybe they get out of it break even right.

Connor: Yes!

Tim: Okay! Because in today’s market and you’re asking people to basically an agent to say like the stock market.

Yes, they think the house is going to keep going up or down. I mean you’re really taking chance there.

Connor: Yes, that’s a trade line, right? So somebody called a real estate agent on the phone and says, ‘Is it a good time to buy?’

‘Yes! Buy right now!’ That’s the typical way it’s done.

Unfortunately, right now in Santa Clarita Valley, here’s some truth, we’ve seen prices being flat for the last couple of months.

And it doesn’t look like the prices are going to continue to go up.

Tim: Really?

Connor: It would give an appearance right now because now we’re getting more and more inventory. We’re seeing a lot of price changes.

So this is something to ask that agent, ‘Where are in the market?’

Tim: Right.

Connor: ‘Is there a buyers market?’ We’re still in the seller’s market. But that trend is now shifting because of the excess inventory we see more days on market timeframes.

We see a lot more properties having their prices changed. And those changes are positive or negative they’re actually reducing.

We don’t see the actual sales prices changing. But again that will eventually happen if we keep on the trend.

There’s no new buyers that come out in to the market wanting to purchase at the current levels. There’s no other place where to go.

Tim: The whole evolution is so interesting in the transition from equity growing and home prices going up to how buyers and sellers realizing, ‘Why is my house is on the market too long?’

And then buyers saying, ‘Well, I noticed that there’s price reduction.’ so everyone just kind of sits on the fence.

Connor: Absolutely!

Tim: There’s like this delay.

Connor: Correct. And so that’s where we’re saying right now. A lot of buyers they’re waiting. And we have a plethorawe’re working with.

They’re just waiting. And I get that. And we have sellers. The biggest question today from a seller is ‘When am I going to move?’

‘Okay, so I want to upgrade from this house. Is there going to be a house for me?’

It’s not to that point where I could say, ‘100%, yes!’

Tim: Right

Connor: And then the other question ‘What do I do if I sell this?’ We should make this sale contingent on me finding the home of choice.

And so then that becomes a tough scenario for a buyer when there are 50 other houses.

Tim: And you kind of tie up three different people, right?

Connor: Yes, so then the other buyers so ‘I don’t want to ride this far. This house is contingent. I’m finding another house.’

Tim: And now will I be contingent on them buying one.

Connor: Oh, real deep! And then it’s like a house of cars.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: You go through the whole thing. And it could be 10-20. I mean infinite numbers deep one person in there that’s contingent, they give the whole thing done.

Tim: Collapsed.

Connor: Yes, It’s very interesting.

California Divorce Mediation Explained

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Mediation Explained

Tim: Today we’re here with Lisa Scholz who is a mediator.

And I want to get these videos out to folks with there’s a big misunderstanding about what mediators do when it’s in regards to family law.

So we wanted to get some information out there so we can kind of pull the curtain back on what mediation is in regards to and how it works with Family Law and Divorces specifically.

So Lisa Scholz is a Mediator/Divorce Coach. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that does? And what mediation is?

And just kind of introduce yourself and your company and what you can do folks.

Lisa Scholz: Okay, so I’m a private non-attorney mediator. I know a lot of people know attorneys that also do mediation. And this is kind of a completely different perspective.

I have a practice where I help people through with their Divorce process. They need to have their legal advice from somewhere else that doesn’t come from me.

But I work on the communication skills. I work on coming to an agreement that works best for their family.

And that’s the most important to me is that it fits what they need as a family especially if there’s kids involved.

Tim: So regarding kids and family and just overall decision making mediation as opposed to litigation long term especially if kids are involved–

Lisa Scholz: Yes.

Tim: …this is going to be beneficial because they’re getting a Divorce but they’re still going to see each other on custody exchanges.

Lisa Scholz: The relationship needs to stay intact.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa Scholz: I mean you may not like your partner, you may not get along well enough to live together anymore but when you have children involved that relationship needs to be where you have those communication skills.

And you were able to salvage whatever relationship you had left so that your children are not the collateral damage.

Tim: Right. So tell us a little bit more about you specifically and your background.

Lisa Scholz: Okay.

Tim: …regarding how did you get into mediation. How does this come about?

Lisa Scholz: I went through Divorce as well several years ago. And was like most of the public that I’ve talked to, I didn’t know what mediation was.

I heard that I was supposed to go mediation before we had a hearing date. My ex-husband was not interested in participating in that.

That was something he wasn’t interested in. And I looked further into it. I asked a lot of questions.

I was getting ready to go back to school to get a Graduate Degree. And decided that was something I wanted to focus on.

It was Mediation in Complex Resolution. So I actually received my Masters in that specialty in Psychology.

So I come from a completely different perspective, a different background than attorney mediators do. I don’t have that litigation mindset.

I want a peaceful process. And it is completely in the hands of the parties of the clients.

This is their life which the decisions they make about their family should come from them and not from anyone else.

So more of a facilitator trying to ask those important questions that make them thinks about what’s the most important all the time.

Tim: Got you.  Now you brought up education. I want to touch on that because I looked in to offering mediation services because as Legal Document Preparation Service we have limitations.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: So we don’t give legal advice. We don’t go to court for people and represent them in court, not in that fashion.

We’re just here to fill out the paperwork properly, correctly and give that professional service. And sometimes even though people have come to us and they think they have all their agreements, something happens.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: And they have trouble coming to agreements usually about money or something like that. And we didn’t offer mediation services, so, I actually looked into becoming a mediator as in additional service.

And what I found was there’s no real governing board. There’s not any real way of getting certified.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: I mean I can call myself a mediator today with zero training.

Lisa: And a lot of people do that.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: There are lots of trainings available. They’re very cursory. They just kind of scratch the surface.

And it’s more of ‘Okay, you kind of have an idea of what it’s like. Good luck!’ They kind of throw you out there.

My educational background was much more intense. It involved cultural differences, differences within, different family backgrounds I mean it came from every angle that you can think of.

And then my work in the court system helps me not only say, ‘Hey, this is a great option for your family to do this without having to deal with attorneys, without having to go through the court system.’ because this is what I know about what happens to families in the court systems because I’ve been there.

And I can continue to work there. But my goal is to steal people away from that.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: Because it’s just not a happy ending 99% of the time.

Tim: Sure. And so education is important if someone is looking for a mediator. You have to really be careful and find out what their background is. And make sure it’s going to be a suitable—

Lisa: Well, like you said anybody can say, ‘Hey, I took a two week course of Mediation. And now I’m a mediator.’

And that’s not, and the attorney mediators, a lot of times that’s what they do. And say ‘Now I offer mediation services.’

They’re still coming from a litigation background.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: Where it’s a win loose–

Tim: About the law.

Lisa: We got the laws. The only thing that matters you need, we need, they’ll even take one of the parties side and say, ‘You really shouldn’t be agreeing to this.’

Tim: Really?

Lisa: It’s not on your interest. And they forget that their job is to help the people come together and communicate and not pissed. It’s just this automatic thing.

Tim: It’s just that’s how their brain works.

Lisa: It’s how their brain works. That’s how they were trained in law school.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And that’s what happened. So—

Tim: Okay. So mediation, if you could put it into a sentence or two, how would you explain what mediation is. I’m sure you get the question all the time.

People asking me what mediation is or some people think that we are mediators.

Lisa: Okay.

Tim: So what is mediation in regards to Family Law?

Lisa: Mediation has existed and it’s so interesting to me because it has existed for thousands of years in many different cultures. It is a new concept to us as Americans in the West because we are so individualized.

And we like to win and we like to get a cup and is very competitive. So the old kind of communal mediation process is lost on us and it’s starting to come back.

And we’re starting to kind of get to feel of the benefits of mediation. So the process is peaceful. You’re allowed to be heard.

You’re allowed to get out what it is that’s frustrating you. But we’re hopefully are mediators teachers and we help translate between the parties.

We help them understand. We help them try getting to each other shoes and find out ‘Well if I was my ex and why does he felt this way, why does he wants this so badly and why does she feel so’—it’s kind of digging deep.

No, we’re not therapist! A lot of times people are like ‘Well that sounds like family therapy.’ We don’t get into your childhood.

We don’t get into why you’re doing the things you’re doing. We’re just focusing on this process, these major changes you’re making in your family.

And we make it non-adversarial, peaceful, and supportive. And we really want the parties to hear and be heard. That’s what’s the most important.

Tim: Okay, well Lisa it’s a good explanation. It seems Lisa mentioned that we kind of get away from mediation. It’s been there for thousands of years—the courts and maybe because the courts are so impacted.

I tell my clients, ‘The courts don’t want you in the system. They don’t want you going in to the court.’

Lisa: No!

Tim: ‘They don’t want you in the court room. They want you if it’s all possible to come to the agreements.’

Lisa: Yes!

Tim: And I think in just a 100% of cases that you’re going to make people involved are going to make better decisions about their Divorce, in the terms of their Divorce.

Lisa: Right!

Tim: Than going to court and having some judge who just knows you for about 15 minutes.

Lisa: Exactly!

Tim: Making decisions that will then become orders.

Lisa: And impacted the rest of your life. I mean these are it is completely out of your hands at that point.  You get to the point where the judges saying, ‘Okay, here is what’s going to happen.’

You have lost all control of what happens with you, your money, your house, your kids. It is in somebody’s hands like you said somebody that’s known you for 15 seconds.

Tim: Yes, read a little bit.

Lisa: Maybe reviewed your case really quickly. And then decides the rest of your life together.

Tim: That’s right!

Lisa: And you’re right they don’t want you there. They are inundated. They are stacked up.

And it’s like ‘cattle call’ they’re just trying to move people through. And it’s just very slow process.

Tim: Yes, in fact we have some clients that come in and say, ‘Well, I’m just going to let the court decide.’  And I have to tell them that it doesn’t work that way. In fact the courts not going to get involve.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: …in your Divorce case, unless you specifically ask them to get involve. So you can file for Divorce. You can go through the process but it doesn’t automatically get picked up for the court.

You don’t automatically get a court date. You have to specifically ask for a court date for a trial.  Otherwise they do not want to touch it.

Lisa: And it could be months in advance.

Tim: It is months. Right now if you want to get the trail set in which is a request that takes 60-90 days just to get the date.

Then your date 60-90 days out from that. And that’s just to set the court date. That’s not the court date.

And it’s like a long term trail where you think it’s going to be several days we’re talking out about a year for a date.

Lisa: You’re right and people don’t realize the process and what’s involved. And they don’t realize that you are getting billed by your attorney.

Tim: Oh yes.

Lisa: While you wait to go to court. You don’t start when you walk in the court doors. You are being billed for your phone calls.

You’re being billed for your emails. You’re being billed for your time. And in mediation coming from a non-attorney mediation setting my set up is completely different to where I want your questions.

I want you to be in control of this process. I want you to know what it is that we’re doing and that the process makes sense to you.

I’m not going to bill you point two for an email or point two for a phone call. I want you to call me.

And I want to make sure that you are on board. And that this is something that’s working for you.

So as far as the fee set up it’s also a completely different bargain than what the attorneys have set up.

Tim: Right.  So let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about the cost of Divorce the cost of Mediation because it can be very expensive or it can be very low cost. It just depends on what direction you want to go.

And I found it interesting that you know about the point two and how they charge.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: I worked for a law firm for several years out here and I was just surprised how much money goes into this and the way they bill.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: If you send an attorney an email you’re getting billed for that for them reading it. If you call them you’re getting billed for that time and you get charged in most cases at point six increments.

Lisa: Right!

Tim: So 10 6 minutes increments.  So if it’s a one minute conversation you’re getting billed for six minutes. And if they charged $450 an hour that phone call cost 20 30 or 40 bucks for—

Lisa: And adds up very quickly.   I know I’ve had conversations where they received the bill for the month and are just blown away.

They didn’t realized what was being charged, what they were being billed for.

Tim: We’ve had people call us and say I just spent $5,000 on a retainer for an attorney and their assumption was that was the total cost.

Lisa Scholz: Right.

Tim: They thought, okay $5,000 we’ll get through this. They didn’t realize that that’s a retainer. I’ve done a lot of videos about this.

Lisa Scholz: Yes.

Tim: It’s a retainer. They get billed hourly, your photocopies, postage, phone calls, and emails were all billed against that.

Lisa Scholz: Everything.

Tim: And it is gone in less than 30 days. And what I found is most of the time all that’s happened is the initial divorce papers were filed.

Lisa Scholz: Right.

Tim: And they’re served. No financial disclosures. Not even close to an agreement because that’s how it goes. I mean—it’s crazy. Now that’s it.

Mediation let’s tell folks how low cost it could be.

Lisa: Okay.

Tim: With mediation let’s say combined with our service where let’s say we are your Legal Document Preparation, we do the paperwork for them, we take care of all of going to court filing and serving all that.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: But they need help with the agreements.

Lisa: Okay.

Tim: So we can kind of work cohesively together, our two companies, I would say we get this case filed and get things started and get their financial stuff out in the open.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Get that stuff done. And then generally, is that a good time for them to start the mediation process?

Lisa: Yes. So the way that I work it and I’ve done a lot of research and I’ve talked to a lot of Mediation Firms and I’ve worked with and I’ve gone through lots of pretty intense trainings.

I continue to go and learn new things. The field is just expanding very quickly. And I’ve talked to everybody that I can about ‘Well, how do you set up your process? And how do you have your fee?’

And you know most of attorneys they do it with the way attorneys do it.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And is pretty uniformed and that’s how they do it. Non-attorney mediators have a bit of a different and we can be more flexible.

And we can decide–we’re going away from the attorney set up as far as fees. My initial consultation is free.

Call me on the phone and ask me as many questions as you want. I’m not going to charge you for it. I’ll take 30-60 minutes with you and explain the process.

I’ll let you ask as many questions as you want. I’ll send out a pocket before that you can read through.

And ask any questions about that, the mediation agreement, what it all entails. And then after that it’s a $150 per hour per party for each session.

And they usually last, each session we max out at three hours. I find that after three hours people just don’t want to think anymore.

That’s about the maximum. And I know I have heard about marathon mediation sessions that go all day long and people are just dead.

They can’t think anymore. They don’t want to talk anymore. They don’t want to try to come to any kind of agreement anymore.

And there’s not a whole lot of progress made. So I’ve decided that three hours chunks.

If it’s a simple mediation and then the partners have talked extensively before they even come in a three hour session is probably all they need.

Tim: And they may be mediating in every part of them?

Lisa: Exactly.

Tim: Or maybe just a single issue.

Lisa: Exactly. So –

Tim: Right?

Lisa: Many times I’ve had attorneys that don’t want to deal with the emotional parts of mediation where children are involved.

They asked me to step in and do the parenting plans because that’s something that they’re not comfortable with. They don’t like the wife crying.

They don’t want to hear all about the trauma and they say, ‘Hey, you know Lisa is a mediator. And she’s going to help you out with the parenting plan. And hopefully the two of you can figure something out as far as the kids are concerned. And then you can come back and we can talk about your money.’

Tim: So what is the Math on that? You said a $150 per hour per party?

Lisa: Per party.

Tim: Per session.

Lisa: So it’s like $300 if you go to a three sessions. So it’s 900 bucks for that session.

Tim: For three hours?

Lisa: For three hours.

Tim: Okay.

Lisa: If it’s an extensive mediation to where they haven’t even thought of anything, they’re just starting the process sometimes it will take two or three sessions to get through all of what they need to come up with the best agreement.

Tim: It depends on how much they have?

Lisa: But there’s no hidden cost. They’re not going to get a bill.

And I usually ask them to pay that before the mediation depending–

Tim: Okay.

Lisa: And if it goes shorter then I refund them as ‘Okay, I think this is probably going to be two hour session.’

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: And we knocked it out with an hour and a half. Then I refund that amount.

Tim: Sure.

Lisa: There are no hidden costs. And as far as the filing this is why I think our two companies is such a great partnership because as a non-attorney mediator, I don’t have the legal background.

I’m not allowed. It’s illegal for me to drop any kind of legal documents.

Tim: Same with us.

Lisa: So I—

Tim: We’ll draft legal documents.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Okay, and then Lisa you give legal advice?

Lisa: No. No legal advice.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: I always say, ‘You know what? It’s probably –‘

Tim: We draft legal documents.

Lisa: Yes, I was going to say that’s what you do but no legal advice.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And—and attorney mediator shouldn’t be doing that anyway. But as a non-attorney it’s easy for me because I don’t do the law. That’s not what I do.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: So that’s where I say, ‘but I have this great company that will get everything together that needs to be filed. And your costs are also extremely low.’

Tim: In comparison.

Lisa: … as far as—I mean in comparison and again I’ve done a lot of research before I jumped in to this field with both feet.

A normal divorce with normal people that are not wealthy, they’re not celebrities, they don’t have a ton of money, they don’t have a vacation house costs anywhere between $60,000 and a $100,000.

That is an average divorce.

Tim: I’ve looked up those same statistics and it’s shocking and I think people don’t really think that, that is true.

Lisa: They think it’s not going to be that for me.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: Because we’re going to keep the cost down. And we’re going to figure this out. But they don’t realize how it adds up so quickly.

Tim: Very quickly! And that’s I think that two attorneys combined. So they have—

Lisa: Exactly!

Tim: If you have 30,000 they have 30,000 and I tell you having worked for attorney that is not uncommon. And often they worked that people would get their bills at the end of the month.

And we had more people call us after receiving their bill and say I want to settle. I want to settle.

Lisa: We’re done. We’re done.

Tim: I can’t believe we’re going to have nothing left at the end of this. And only unfortunately the attorneys win.

So they take that $60,000-100,000. Even if let’s say you have a simple case.

And you have all your agreements which would make you suitable for my services and you go to an attorney that can easily run you $15,000 just because of the hourly rates of the attorneys preparing the documents filing fees and so forth.

It can add up. So when you hear our fees combined and just roughly if you have minimal issues or just a few issues and maybe one session use our service for document preparation, Lisa’s services for mediation per session you’re talking like around $2,000 at the top of things as opposed to—

Lisa: …which is a quarter of a retainer that you would have to plant down at the beginning–

Tim: For attorney.

Lisa: Before anything else is done.

Tim: Yes. Before they start the case, yes! And that’s after your $350 or $450 paid consultations.

Lisa: Right. Right, it really is just such a start difference. And again we had the time issue.

We talked about the courts talking forever to even hear your case.  And there’s a lots of hoops you have to jump through before that even is on their calendar.

We can do mediation with your Divorce and it’s up to you. The court doesn’t tell you when you have to be there.

You decide on your schedule what works best for you.

It could a month if you kind of have to space it out and that would be the longest that would take for you to complete everything on your schedule, on your timeline, not somebody else is.

Tim: Yes.  There are different types of mediators. You have attorney mediators.

We kind of talk about that a bit.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: We have non-attorney mediators as your self. And we have court mediators.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: We have mediators at the court as a part of the process. Can you talk a bit on the differences between let’s say an attorney mediator. We’re talking about the litigation mindset.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Non-attorney mediators and I’d also like to know, at the end of the day when you’re done with mediation, what do I walk away with and how is that beneficial?

Lisa: Okay.

Tim: Let’s say call me, ‘So we’ve had mediator and Tim we have all the conditions, the terms were ironed out.” What would they have at the end of that? They have some type of a written agreement? That sort of thing.

Lisa: Okay, now the judge it’s a requirement especially in family law. You have to meet with the family law mediator. The LA Superior Court systems require that mediator in the court house to bill an attorney.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: They don’t allow non-attorney mediators in that process.

Tim: So what you’re saying is if you’re going to go to a court for a trial or hearing of any med type, you have to go to the court mediator first before they will talk to the judge.

They’re hoping you will in that court mediation they will come to an agreement before they’re seeing the judge. So that’s what you’re referring to?

Lisa: Which is almost in my mind and I’ve seen the other side in different organizations I’ve worked with, I’ve taken clients as I’ve advocated for them or represented them as in different organizations I’ve taken them to mediation.

And this is while I was going to school to get my graduate degree in Mediation and I just thought this is not what I thought it would be like.

This is what not I think the Peer Mediation process should be like. They give you about 15 minutes, maybe. They are attorneys, so, they ask a very directive questions.

They will flat out say, ‘No, I don’t think that you should agree to that.’

Tim: Really? So they’re not really neutral?

Lisa: They’re not!

Tim: At that point.

Lisa: They have—

Tim: And this is the court?

Lisa: These are the court mandated, hired by the court. These are the ones that they require you to talk to before you come in to the judge.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: And I hate to say this but they’re pretty much a bully! They’re a little bit bully into making this agreement quickly.

You don’t have a lot of time. The judge is waiting on you. Let’s just get this run through.

And it’s an intimidating process for people.

Tim: And the reason I want to bring this that these three court mediators, attorney mediators and non-attorney mediators because they are not there to sit for two or three hours in every sessions…

Lisa: No.

Tim: …of your time on your schedules. You’re talking about a line of people a day or two prior to or even on the day of your hearing.

Lisa: The same day right.

Tim: Going in there and they have other hundred people to mediate and they’re pushing you through. So that’s not what I call professional paid mediation which is what you have.

Lisa: Right. It’s not the best. That’s right.

Tim: Which is on your time, so, I just want to get these differences out there. So why don’t you talk a little bit about attorney mediators?

People that are attorneys and then they also offer mediation services at that litigation mindset?

Lisa: Well, like I said the mediation process is starting to kind of have a researching.  It’s a little bit of a rebirth because like I said it’s never really gone away.

It’s just our particular culture has kind of smashed it down because of our different way of looking at things. It’s coming back.

Attorneys are very aware that that’s something that maybe a little bit of a competition for them because they want to keep that adversarial.

They want to drag these cases out. They want to have all of these billed hours. That’s why they went to law school.

So they see mediation let’s say, ‘That is something maybe I can do as part of my law practice. I can add that for a little bit more income and then give people the peace of mind.’

Oh yes, I’ve heard about mediation. And I know you’ve read about it. I offer that as well.

But the people are not getting the Peer Mediation process. They’re getting an attorney particularly a couple of weeks training and is going to try their best to represent people when in their mind it’s like, ‘No, he should be doing that.’ ‘No, she should be doing that.’ ‘No, he should not be giving in to that.’

And they’re very directive.

Tim: So what kind of issues would come from that? Why is that not probably the best way of mediating?

Lisa: Well, ideally obviously you can’t be completely neutral. I’ve had cases where I’ve related more of some it’s not always to the wife, sometimes I relate more to the husband and think ‘What is her problem? She is being so unreasonable.’

And sometimes you can even say that to the person saying, ‘You know what it feels to me like you were kind putting obstacles in the way it is. And what is it that you’re really wanting right now?’

Tim: What’s the real thing?

Lisa: ‘What’s going on with you?’ And you can take them and separate them and not have the other person and say, ‘We’ve kind of come to a stand still. Let’s hear what’s going on with you. What is so important that about the set of spoons that we’re going to take two sessions on the set of spoons?’

You want to figure out what’s the underlined cause.

Tim: It’s not about the spoons. There’s something out there.

Lisa: It’s not about the spoons, it never is.

Tim: I needed a Master’s Degree in Psychology?

Lisa: In Psychology.

Tim: So you probably can pick up on these things?

Lisa: It’s a different background. And I think definitely the attorney’s are not going to want to take the time.

I had an attorney. I got tune up pretty well in the training and he said, ‘As soon as the wife starts crying and they start going at it, I get up and I walk down the hall and talk to somebody until I can hear it’s quieting down.’

He’s like, ‘I don’t want to deal with that.’

Tim: Isn’t that at the point where someone really needs to be in the room?

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: Like that should be the opposite?

Lisa: Yes. And that’s the mediator’s job. As a neutral party I’m here for both of you.

Yes, sometimes you’re being a pain and you’re kind of dragging the process down. Yes and sometimes it’s the other party. And you can sometimes call them out on that.

But we want to bring the level of contention down. That’s the only way because I think we’ve had conversations before you say people make the worst decisions when they’re emotionally charged.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: They don’t make good decisions. So a lot of times a whole session will be letting them bend these emotions in a safe room where they feel like they can be heard.

The other person is respectful, doesn’t interrupt, attorneys just don’t know that process. And they don’t have the patience to go through that kind of thing.

Tim: So folks are having difficulty communicating. They hire an attorney mediator to mediate for them.

And they get to the point where they’re having trouble talking which is exactly why they hire them for. They get up and walk away.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: So—

Lisa: You let me know when you’re done and we’ll get back to crunching the numbers.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: Because they just want the process to get done. And they just want to kind of assure people assure the public we know mediations of another process and we’ve read about it and we offer that as well.

But there’s no way that it can be the same kind of process, it’s just litigation.

Tim: The mindset.

Lisa: For both of them.

Tim: By the way when the attorney gets up to go and talk down the hall while you’re arguing you’re still getting billed.

Lisa: They’re billing you.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: They’re billing you. Point six, point five.

Tim: Okay, so finally on non-attorney mediations. So with your services we’ve talked about the court and how that doesn’t seem very ideal, attorney litigation mindset. And now with yours how is that work to in comparison?

Lisa: Okay. That’s –

Tim: Though we’ve talked about it a little bit.

Lisa: And this is such a great opportunity because it’s like you said people just aren’t aware that this is an option for them.

They feel like we can get our ties and go to work. Okay, we’ve heard about this mediation process. Okay, my attorney offers mediation and they feel like that’s their only other option.

And it maybe is a better process than litigation but the mediator you’re working with is still looking ahead to thinking well probably end up in litigation anyway. And so that’s a kind of the end game.

When you’re coming from a completely different background and I’ve met other mediators from like family therapist are taking on mediation because they have seen the after Math of what happens to families.

And they’ve had to deal with that. And now they’re trying to prevent all of that chaos and disaster and destruction by offering mediation services which I think is a great background.

But a lot of times they feel like they need to partner up with an attorney to make themselves legitimate and then the process kind of gets tainted again by that attorney fee set up the litigation mindset and it kind of goes off track just a little bit.

But as far as finding a mediator that fits and it has to be a good fit. You have to feel comfortable with the person. You have to trust them.

You have to feel like okay this person is listening to me. This person I don’t feel like it’s going to take my husband side or my wife side in this. I think that’s a worry for some people how are you going to be or how are you going to go take her side on this.

Tim: Sure.

Lisa: Are you going to feel like she’s right and I am wrong. And I mean that’s a worry nobody can be really in partial.

But as a mediator that’s our job. It’s to do that the best we can.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: I have a websites lsrmediation.com. I am on a lot of different mediation organizational sites, mediate.com and Southern California Mediation Association and there’s couple of other ones.

And when you look for a mediator those are great resources because a lot of times they are private mediation firms that don’t have that attorney background.

And there’s more and more of us coming because we love, we’re passionate about the process. We want to bring peace especially in the Divorce situation.

We want to bring peace to these families and really save a lot of heartache. And so we’re trying to focus and educate the public.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: About these options that we’re out there.

Tim: That’s why we’re doing this today.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: Yes, to let people know that mediation exists and what they can do.

So how does the law work in relationship to mediation? Because people want to know what’s the law say? What’s the law on this? You need kind of a foundation of what the rule is to make a good informed decision?

Lisa: Right. Yes.

Tim: Let’s say there is going to be an issue with spousal support let’s say, what is the law say? Okay, it’s a long term marriage of how much should be paid—

Lisa: There’s a lot of numbers —

Tim: What would the court say because they need to know what might happen in court perhaps to know maybe they should get spousal support for life but you’re in mediation and they agree to one year.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Because they didn’t know the law said they could get it for life. That’s just a scenario.

So as a none-attorney mediator and unlike me I’m unable to give legal advice, in mediation how do you deal with that?

Lisa: That’s a good question and that was something that’s as I’ve set through this different trainings, I’m worried because you want to give your clients the best possible care. Like an attorney you’re held up to a standard now.

This time mediation is not licensed. They’re coming closer and closer to that possibility and they’re setting more and more firm guidelines as to how a mediator should behave as a professional which is nice.

It’s always nice for public…

Tim: Sure.

Lisa: …to have these guidelines. As a non-attorney mediator like I said I can’t draft a legal document, I can’t give legal advice but to give you the best possible care and give you those option it’s I always recommend before even during our first consultation that you find an attorney that you trust that you can asked these questions.

And I also worked with family attorneys that I can call on their behalf when they have these questions. And ask those questions for them.

And we’ve worked out fee, terms between the two of us, consultation fees but they need to know what the court says even if they decide to opt against the court.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: Especially when there’s many involved they need to know like you said, what is the DissoMaster? How does that work?

There’s so many different options and I say of course I think it’s a really good idea if you can consult with an attorney.

But I want to reiterate and remind you that this is your agreement and it should be up to you and not them.

Tim: So do you recommend that they consult with an attorney before they mediate or after –

Lisa: You can do it during the process, the first thing I ask is if they’ve talked to an attorney? If they have any kind of representation, I have a referral list of attorneys that I’ve trust and that know me but I give them financial consultants.

I have attorney, I have definitely your company on there as well which I think they should go directly to but you can’t give legal advice either.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: You can just get everything ready for them so that we can get it to the court when it’s finished.

And the attorneys that I have on my list are ones that don’t nickel and dime and they’re willing to talk to them on the phone and answer questions without billing them, without asking for a retainer, without any of these things.

Tim: There’s not many of those.

Lisa: They’re not many of those. And I think they’re just on my list.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: That is important to me to have clients have that available to them because it is important that they know their options and that they don’t feel like they signed an agreement and came to an agreement ignorantly and didn’t know.

Tim: Right! Or goes down the road and say, ‘Wait a minute–’

Lisa: ‘I should have known.’ Right!

Tim: Yes.

Lisa:  Right, so that’s definitely not something I want.

Tim: So kind of the ideal scene would that’s how I kind of see things. They maybe come to our services and what I try and tell people is most of what we do is amicable cases where they already know from the most part what they want.

But they don’t have to have all the agreements. And the reason I want to get this information out there is people don’t need attorneys even if they’re not in agreement.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: You don’t have to run through an attorney because you don’t have an agreement. You can use our service.

We can get the paperwork started for and get that process moving with the courts. We’ll move forward and work with you towards the end. And let you know about the agreements.

And if you have struggles and problems, that’s when you would call a mediator to get those little things, ironed out.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: And once those agreements are drafted and you guys agreed to what the terms are going to be, simply they come back to us. And then we put that on the legal documents –

Lisa: Right.

Tim: …for the court and that gets submitted to the court. And that’s honestly how easy it can be instead of hiring an attorney to do all these things.

Because once you have attorney what automatically happens is your spouse is going to get an attorney and because –

Lisa: And that’s when the adversarial process steps in.

Tim: Because it’s adversarial, they have to defend and fight for you. It’s automatically things that you won’t agreed upon are probably going to go away.

Lisa: Right. They dissolved.

Tim: They’re going to bring up new issues and new problems and all that. So hopefully by us doing this video people will watch this.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: And say, ‘Wow! There’s this new way of doing things.’ It’s not really new. It’s thousands of years old.

Lisa: But new to our society for sure.

Tim: Yes. And I don’t want to say steal away business from attorneys. We want to give them the assistance they really needed.

They won’t need litigation—

Lisa: And you know in Family Law especially, now there are areas where attorneys are extremely beneficial to people in businesses in tax areas.

These are areas where you, that’s probably where I would send you first.

But when there’s a Divorce, when there’s difficult family decisions to make, when there’s kids that are sad and upset and they don’t know what’s going on, attorneys make it worst 99% of the time.

And the court system is not where you want to have your family. You don’t want to spend your time and your money when at the end you’ve lost your shirt, you’ve lost your sanity and things are a hundred times worst than they were at the beginning of it.

Tim: Now it takes two though where there are certainly cases Divorce cases that there’s no way it’s not going to an attorney.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: People hiding assets.

Lisa: Oh yes!

Tim: Domestic violence, I mean—

Lisa: And those issues come up that’s when I terminate mediation.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: I mean not everything can be mediated.

Tim: Right.

Lisa: Unfortunately I would love to think so. But when those issues come up and those were on my intake questions when I talked to people in the phone, I asked very specific questions about domestic violence.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: And about what types of financial issues are you having? Those are the things that need to be straightened out.

Those can’t just be you can’t come in and just smoothen it all over and say, ‘Oh, we’re all going to hold hands now and just we’re going to agree on everything.’

That’s something that really needs the professionals, the legal professionals to step in.

Tim: Right. So attorneys are there for those who need it in their cases. We’re not here to say that no one should be using an attorney.

Lisa: No!

Tim: Because when there’s people hiding assets and doing those types of things and not playing fair.

Lisa: No, you really need that one—

Tim: The only way or they have a business and they’re hiding assets.

Lisa: Definitely!

Tim: They’re not showing their true income or you need business evaluations, these are things where attorneys would be needed. But that’s the very far and very few in between.

Lisa: Yes, they’re not many like that.

Tim: 90% 95% of the cases are no attorney involvement.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Definitely, they have some professional services like ours preparing their documents.

They probably have some assistance with coming to agreements. And but outside of that they can save a ton of money.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: They can get through it and still have somewhat of relationship with their spouse or their ex-spouse.

Lisa: Right.

Tim: Former spouse.

Lisa: Co-parents, oh yeah!

Tim: Co-parents, that’s particularly important with kids.

Lisa: Yes.

Tim: So ideally document preparation with us, mediation with you that should solve things after you put together the agreements.

They could go to independent attorneys for consultation and say, ‘Take a look at those agreements.’

Lisa: Check it out and I encourage that.

Tim: ‘Take a look at this agreement, does it seem fair? And then let them tell you what the plus and minuses are of it—‘

Lisa: And come back and we can talk about it for sure.

Tim: You come back and talk about that. Now don’t hire the attorney. Just go on a consultation. I’ve always try to help people and save money.

Lisa: Yes, you don’t have to

Tim: Pay for a one hour consultation and let them review it. So Lisa would have put together the agreements.

I would put them on to the actual judgment documents for the court. And then you could take them before we file it with the court, you sign it, the attorney can review it and –

Lisa: And I definitely encourage before you sign anything and make anything and send anything in to court, I want everyone to feel comfortable.

And because of our society and the way that we feel about our court systems and give them so much authority it gives people a peace of mind to know ‘Okay, my legal person said that this is a fair agreement.’

Tim: Right.

Lisa: And of course they’re going to ask and look at it and maybe say, ‘I don’t know. Did you really agree to that?’

And that something that you can come back and then talk about it if that’s something that you’re not completely settled.

I don’t want you to sign anything if you have any kind of reservations. That’s I’m not going to make you do that.

Tim: Very good.  I think we covered quite a bit. Is there anything else we need to touch on?

Lisa: I can’t think of anything else. No I just appreciate the opportunity to be able to let people know about this and I think this is a good combo for like you said…

Tim: Absolutely.

Lisa:  The majority of the Divorce is that you’re going on out there…

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: It’s just money saver, time saver and sanity saver for you.

Tim: Yes, I’m so excited to find you because I had nowhere to send folks that need mediation services. I was to send them out of town.

Lisa: Yes. It’s nice to keep things in and about.

Tim: It is. So why don’t you one last time Lisa Scholz in your website and where is the best way they can contact you?

Lisa: Well, okay, well I have a business phone number. I have an office on Magic Mountain, Parkway.

And my business phone number is 661-481-2202. And they can reach me no matter where I am.

And my email address or my website is lsrmediation.com and I’m combining everything. So that is –

Tim: And your email is lsrmediation@yahoo.com.

Lisa: @yahoo.com

Tim: .com

Lisa: So yes, it’s easy because my name is in everything.

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: And like I said, I check my emails every evening. And it’s on your schedule. So—

Tim: Free consultations.

Lisa: Yes!

Tim: You got to take advantage of that and make sure to give her a call. And definitely I’ve already sent some clients through your way. I don’t know if you got any calls or not?

Lisa: I’ve gotten a couple and like I said I check my emails

Tim: Yes.

Lisa: It was in the evenings so it’s just —

Tim: Very good and that helps my business. If I with confidence can get people and they say, ‘Tim, we have no agreements at all. We have no agreements. Can we use your service?’

‘Yes, because I can refer you at to mediation.’

Lisa: Yes, to get those agreements.

Tim: To get those agreements.

Lisa: Perfect!

Tim: And that’s a beautiful thing.

Lisa: Good!

Tom: We also give free consultations. Give us a call and we’ll let you know if you’re a good fit for our service.

You can call Lisa if you have questions about Mediation. Other than that Divorce661.com is my website.

We’re on YouTube. We have silver outlets, live podcast and broadcasting just trying to get that—

Lisa: Great, I like all those stuff.

Tim: All these informations out there to folks and kind of pull the curtain back on how Divorce works here in California.

Lisa: Good.

Tim: So thanks so much for coming.

Lisa: Thanks for having me.

Tim: Alright!

Affordable Divorce Service In Torrance, CA Divorce Paralegal

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Affordable Divorce Service In Torrance, CA Divorce Paralegal

Talking about Affordable Divorce Services in Torrance, California, that’s my specialty. Specializing in preparing Divorce cases in Torrance and we are that affordable Divorce Service you’ve been looking for.

We are a full service Divorce Document Preparation Firm in Torrance which means we fill out the forms, we go down to Torrance Court House and we’ll file them.

We’ll get your case number issued. We’ll serve them. All the financial disclosures and we’ll prepare all your agreements.

You need help with your agreements we can set you up with Mediation Services to help you and your spouse come up with those agreements.

And then put those down on the judgment forms and get things filed.

Now we are a neutral third party so the flat fees you’ll see on our website at Divorce661.com on our pricing page is to help you both and your spouse all the way through aside from additional services you may need such as Mediation and things like that.

So call us. I’d like to provide a free consultation over the phone with you if you’re going through Divorce in Torrance.

And if you’re looking saving some money, you’re looking something that’s a little bit less expensive and more affordable than having to hire an attorney, please give me a call.

We’re handling cases all throughout California. We’ve become the go-to company and firm for Divorce Document Preparation and we provide that full service process so you can go on with your life.

You don’t have to figure out what forms to fill out. You won’t have to go down the Court House. And we’ll just keep things nice and amicable and get you both through the process so you guys are happy.

When we get your Divorce completed you guys are still friendly and can at least hopefully talk to each other especially if you have kids.

So call us, free consultation. The number is on your screen. I’d love to help you with your Divorce in Torrance.

 

Paralegal Divorce Service Santa Monica, CA

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Paralegal Divorce Service Santa Monica, CA

I want to talk to you about our Paralegal Divorce Service here in Santa Monica.

We’re a full service Divorce Document Preparation Firm that specializes only in Divorce and we do serve the Santa Monica California area.

And I want to let you know a little bit about what we can do for you. So we are a full service Divorce Paralegal Firm.


That means we will do all the paperwork for you. We fill out all the forms. We’ll go down the court for you. We’ll file them.

We’ll serve them. We’ll do all of the court procedure, all the processes, we have all the paperwork, we have all the software that attorneys have and that the courts have.

We have everything here to get your Divorce completed. The benefit obviously is that we’re much more cost effective and that we are not a law firm.

Now people sometimes ask, ‘Well, Tim this isn’t necessarily uncontested and we don’t have all the agreements.’ and that’s fine.

You don’t have to have all your agreements in place to file for Divorce.

If you have difficulty in coming up with your agreements of your Divorce, we can simply help you with setting you up with some Mediation Services.

Have someone sit down with you and talk to you about how can you come to an agreement on the terms of your Divorce.

And that way you can come back to us and we’ll wrap things up and you can avoid having to hire an attorney and spending that extra money.

So we definitely recommend our Paralegal Service in Santa Monica. We have become the go-to folks in Divorce in all of California not just in Santa Monica area.

So give us a call, free consultation and talk about the specifics of your case. Make sure it’s a case that we can handle for you.

And then we’ll take care of your business when you’re ready to get started.

Check out our Divorce Paralegal Service in Santa Monica. We have tons of information on our website.

And again just give us a call. It’s probably the easiest thing to do. Talk to you about the pricing. We do have affordable, flat fee pricing.

We can even help you with saving some monies in the court fees in some cases.

So give us a call I’d be happy to help you out.