Cheap California Divorce Service | Divorce Paralegal Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Cheap California Divorce Service | Divorce Paralegal Service

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com, we specialize in the California divorce process we’re licensed and bonded legal document preparation assistance.

And today I want to talk to you about, looking for that cheap divorce in California.

I get a lot of calls every day, from all throughout California, of course price is important, the economy is still in the dumper a little bit, price is important when you’re going through divorce, and trying to select a service.

But I want to talk to you, kind of a warning if you will, about looking for that low cost service.

If you’re searching for cheap online divorce, you may have come across this video, and you’re going to find hundreds of other companies offering their cheap divorce service, cheap paralegal service, in fact, the name of their website may even be something related to cheap divorce or cheap California divorce or something along those lines.

What I want you to be aware of is you need to make sure what you’re paying for and what you’re getting.

I get lots of business from people who’ve used online companies, they’ve used a cheap divorce service, and only to come to me to correct it because it was wrong or they misrepresented the services that they offered.

So let me give you an example of what you’re going to find out there when you’re looking for a cheap divorce service.

First of all, you’re going to pay anywhere from four to five hundred dollars to have your documents prepared for you. When that’s done, they’re going to mail those documents to you and then you’re going to have to do everything else. You’re going to have to file them with the court, you’re going to have to serve them, you’re going to have to fill out all the proof of services, go down to court and do all that work.

They’re going to give you a twenty-page or so checklist of what to do.

Step one, do this, file, serve the papers, etcetera, etcetera. So you’re going to do all the work, you’re going to pay $400 to $500  for that, you’re going to have to pay your filing fee, and then they’re going to tell you that you need to file a response, that your spouse needs to file a response which is completely inaccurate if you’re going through an uncontested case.

So let me explain to you what our service is and how we’re a little bit different from that. We don’t use automated software; we don’t send you a fifty page questionnaire. Everything we do for you, we will fill out personally for you; we’ll type up the documents for you.

Even if you’re not local, we have clients all over California, we do a lot right over the phone, via e-mail, and again, not through questionnaire but by talking to you and writing up the questions as if you’re sitting in our office.

On top of that, we file all the documents, we serve all the documents; we take everything down to court for you so you don’t have to. We help you establish a parenting plan, we help you determine spouse support numbers, child support numbers; all of that. And we can help you along the process.

You can have 100% assistance throughout it, we’re doing everything for you, and our fees start as low as $699. So we’re just a hundred or so dollars more than these online cheap companies who have you do everything and for about a hundred dollars more we’ll do everything for you.

And so that is the biggest difference between what we do and what other cheap online divorce services are providing.

So give us a call, you know, call these other companies, find out what they’ll do for you.

Then give us a call, we do get a lot of business that attempted to go to these locations or these services and then couldn’t get a hold of them. They had to dispute the charge on their card.

So just be wary, we can take care of any divorce case in California. We’ll handle it personally, you’ll speak to me directly; we’re not a huge conglomerate, it’s for a small company that handles just divorce cases in California.

My name is Tim Bankenship, give me a call, love to help you with your divorce in California, our website is divorce661.com, or you can reach me direct at 661-281-0266. Thanks for reading!

California Divorce | You Must Pay Filing Fee For Response Filing

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce | You Must Pay Filing Fee For Response Filing

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and today I had an interesting call I wanted to share with you.

Call from a client or potential client rather. That had a misunderstanding on the filing fees when you file a response.

So, if you file for divorce, you’re going to file summons and petition, you’re going to pay a filing fee. If the other party is going to file a response, they also have to pay a fee. This is common knowledge but I figure if one person had this misunderstanding, others do.

I have heard of occurrences where people have mailed in responses to the court and assumed it was filed and there was no fee attached so the court just throws it in the trash, literally. They don’t know what to do with it.

So when your spouse files for divorce, they have not paid for the entire divorce, they have paid their half of the filing fee. If you’re going to file a response, you’re also going to have to pay that $435 for instance, to file a response.

So just make sure if you are going to respond, you either need to pay the fee, or you need to request a fee waiver.

There’s very strict guidelines qualifying for fee waivers, but there is a fee to file a response and participate in the case, I think this person, the words he said was well, my wife already paid for the divorce. And that’s not the case, she paid for her filling only, and not for the response.

Now, we do have a method that’s called hybrid dissolution.

What that means is you purposely will not file a response but you can still enter the case by doing your financial disclosures and signing the written agreement. This is what we do 90% of the time because it saves you guys $435, or at least the other party, $435.

And if you guys are doing this together you can simply split the initial filing fee. It’s called a hybrid dissolution, it’s where one party files the other party doesn’t respond, the case is going to proceed by default but it’s going to be default with agreement.

If you want more information on this particular type of judgment it’s a divorce like any other, you get the same result, it just saves you money. Stay on my YouTube channel and search for hybrid dissolution judgment or hybrid divorce judgment checklist, I’ve done a couple of videos on it.

Go ahead and take a look at that and it goes over the checklist and why you can save $435. File a response, pay a fee or fee waiver, do a hybrid and don’t worry about having to pay a fee, and you can still enter into a stipulated judgment with your spouse without paying the fee.

My name is Tim Blankenship, divorce66.com1 is our website. Give me a call, 661-281-0266, we specialize in California divorce; look forward to working with you.

Thanks for reading!

California Divorce Never Completed | How To Finish Divorce Process | Los Angeles | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Never Completed | How To Finish Divorce Process | Los Angeles | Santa Clarita

Hi! My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. We are licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in California divorce.

And today I wanted to talk to you about some issues that we’ve been having or I should say issues other people have been having that has come up frequently this week and if you watch our videos, you know we like to discuss common issues.

So, this week we’ve been getting a lot of people calling who have started their divorce case in the past, months, years, decades ago and never finished them. Either they found out they didn’t finish or knowingly they didn’t complete the process.

So, I want to let you know what to do. This person I spoke to yesterday, they said he had filed in 2008, so what, almost six years ago and never served their spouse. You know, what can he do? Can he get copies, does he have to start over, does he have to re-file?

So, let’s talk about that. What we are finding is a lot of people are starting the process, trying to do it on their own and then later realize that they did not complete the process or they didn’t do it correctly and it was rejected.

We’ve even had cases where people have called us and have already been remarried, and then found out that their divorce were not finalized. So certainly, you don’t want that to happen to you.

But here’s what you can do, here’s what we can do for you, if you need assistance completing your old divorce case that you filed.

Okay, 2008, he filed the papers, never served the wife. So what the court sometimes will do is they’ll dismiss the case if the case you filed has never been served. They’ll just dismiss it, usually they’ll wait 5 years.

Fortunately, the courts are overwhelmed and they’re not doing that right now. So what we’ll find, we’ll have to do that this person, or the first thing you would want to do, if you’re going to attempt to correct it in your own, find your case number. To do that, if you don’t know it, if you don’t have conformed copies which doesn’t sound like this person does. You’ll have to go down to the court house where you filed. Those are the only computers that have public access where you can search by name.

Online from your home or from my office we can only punch the case number in. So, if we don’t have the case number you have to go down to the court house you filed in.

If you are in Los Angeles County, you can go to any of the branches in San Fernando, Lancaster. In the clerk’s office they do have a computer where you can search by name to find out your case number, then once you have the case number you can find out how to proceed.

So, in this case, if you have filed let’s say and you either never served or you served and then didn’t move forward. What you need to do is figure out where you are at and then how to move forward.

So, let’s talk about this particular old case and what we will advise him to do and what we will probably end up doing for him.

Again, first we need to get the case number, once we have the case number we can what has been done. If there is a filed case and it hasn’t been cancelled. We can get copies from the clerk. Once we have copies, we just have to pick up where we left off. The first order of business would be to get her served, and then move forward with the process from there. Complete the financial disclosures, preliminary declaration disclosure and coming expense, schedule of assets and debts and then complete the final judgment.

We can assume in these older cases that there probably was no children perhaps, no request for spousal support, usually it’s a no assets, no debts. You know, short term marriages that usually fall into these categories.

Another case we had, it was an old, old case, it was over eighteen years old. This person hired us to complete the case and again they had filed and only served the documents and nothing else had been done and they thought that they had completed their case. We’re going to pick up from there and this will be an interesting case because she did have copies of her paperwork but it was very, very old, seventeen years ago. They didn’t even have computer records back then. It was kept in this large green books of the file document.

So, if you have questions about California divorce, if you need assistance completing your old case. We can help you anywhere in California. Just let us know the case number. If you don’t have it, we can obtain it for you, we can let you know what steps need to be taken next and we can wrap things up for you.

So, please give me a call.

My name is Tim Blankenship. We’d be happy to help you with your old case.

Direct number is 661-281-0266. We specialize in California divorce and you can learn more off our website at divorce661.com.

Thanks for reading!

California Divorce Costs | Attorney vs. Legal Document Assistant

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Costs | Attorney vs. Legal Document Assistant

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

Today we are doing another live broadcast. We’re also having this transcribed at the same time so we can embed this into our blog and uploading this to an audio file. I just hope my computer can keep up with it.

So, today we’re talking about the divorce cost and specifically I want to talk about the difference between the cost of hiring an attorney to do your California divorce or hiring someone like my firm which we are legal document assistance.

First off, let me tell you what a legal document assistant is. We are licensed and bonded to prepare legal documents and we just happen to specialize in the divorce process in California. We are able to work without an attorney in our office and that’s why we are able to provide a more affordable service.

So, let’s get into the divorce cost. Attorney vs. legal document assistant.

So, obviously attorney’s do a much different job than we do.

Mostly, divorce process is completing paperwork. There are occasions where you may need an attorney and that’s if you need legal advice or if you need to be represented in court. Those are the two things that we are unable to do, our license does not allow us to do that and that’s because we are not an attorneys.

So, if you feel that you will need legal advice or you will need to go to court to be represented, then you probably will need an attorney for that.

Let’s back up just a bit and talk about the beginning of the divorce process in California.

The California divorce process is mostly made up of paperwork. You have your initial documents that need to be completed followed by doing your financial disclosures. None of that requires an attorney, in fact, the divorce process in California can be completed entirely by a legal document preparation firm such as ours without any attorney supervision or without you ever needing to speak with an attorney.

Now, we do have clients that start with us and they know they may need an attorney down the road but they wanted to get as much as the paperwork done as possible before going out and hiring an attorney.

So, let’s talk about the cost a little bit. The average cost to have your divorce completed by an attorney and this is some research I’ve done online, you will as well, if you’re to look for it, Is about $20,000 and that is $20,000 per person not just $20,000 total.

We have clients who call us who have spoken with attorneys and they are just shocked by the amount of money that they are going to charge them for their divorce. After the have talked to an attorney, they generally will call our company to find out if there’s another affordable options for their divorce case.

So, when we talk to them, you know, we explained to them the difference. We want people to understand that there is a difference between what attorneys do and what we do. But at the end of the day we can help clients to get through the entire divorce process from start to finish without any attorney supervision and without you ever needing to speak to an attorney.

Now, if we run into trouble and you do need a legal advice, not a problem, we can always refer you to an attorney in your area and you can get legal advice, a consultation if you need be and then we can get right back to work for you if they get to tell you to do something, we can always just do that for you and you don’t have to hire the attorney to do that for you.

My name is Tim Blankenship. We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service specializing in divorce.

When you use our services, we work on a flat fee basis. We do not use a retainer fee. We will quote you a flat fee for the divorce and that will be the total cost from start to finish. We do everything for you from filing the initial paperwork, we prepare all the forms, we take them down to court for you, and this is a complete service from start to finish, meaning from initial forms, to service, to judgment – all for a flat fee.

You can go to our website at divorce661.com and we have some pricing packages you can see based upon the amount of work that needs to be done. If you have children, if you have property that needs to be separated – those are all the determining factors on the total cost of your divorce.

So feel free to look at our pricing page for more information.

Going back to retainers and how those work. Many people tell us that they spoke to an attorney and they told them the cost would be say $3500 or $4000. Now, what that is, is that’s just a retainer. That’s not the total cost of your divorce. The total cost of your divorce is going to be whatever it takes at that attorney’s hourly rate to get the case finished.

So, if they’re asking for $3500 or $4000 or $5000, that number doesn’t really matter. Because they’re going to bill at their hourly rate. So, if it’s $300, $400, $500 an hour. They’re going to bill you at that hourly rate until that money is extinguished. And if your divorce case isn’t finish, you’re on the hook for the difference.

So, that’s how divorce cases can end up in the 10, $20,000 range based on the high attorney hourly rates.

So, if you’re looking for more affordable service to get your divorce completed. If your case is mostly amicable in nature, even if it’s not amicable, even if you know you’re going to need an attorney but you want to save some upfront cost on the document preparation. We could really help you save some money by using our service

So, feel free to give me a call.

My name is Tim Blankenship. Website is divorce661.com.

My direct number is 661-281-0266.

I hope you found this video and audio helpful and please give us a call if you’d like more information about our service. We’d be happy to take your call.

Thanks for reading!

California Divorce Resources Tips & Help

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce Resources Tips & Help

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

Today we are talking about the California divorce resources tips and help that we have on our website, on our blog actually.

Today we are not only recording live on Google+, we’re also recording on Audacity, so we can upload to our podcast and we are also having this transcribed so we can have this placed into our blogs.

We’ll see if they’re computered and handle all the systems running at the same time.

My name is Tim Blankenship. I am a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service. We do specialize in divorce in California.

And today, simply we’re just going to talk about some of the helpful tips and tricks and resources that we have on our website.

So, if you’re looking to get information about divorce in California, the best way is to go to our divorce661.com – blog and you can go to our resources tab and find lots of helpful information.

What we have found is that, while there are resources online from the courts and so forth, there isn’t an easy way to find the information and if you do find the information it is difficult to understand.

So, what we have done is taken the information from the court’s website, information we know, and we started putting that out on audio, on our podcast, we put it out on video and we also write about it.

So, what we’re attempting to do is make it easier to understand as far as divorce is concerned in California.

So, let’s talk a little bit about some of the resources that we have on our site here. We have several items that you can utilize to get information such as, our resources page. You can find information regarding the California rules of court. And I’m looking at my site right now, just so we can kind of get a reference here.

We have the Los Angeles County family law rules. We have the California Family Law codes. We also have helpful links to a superior court websites, the mediator sites, where you can find case summaries. We have the county law libraries as well on our site. You can get that information there as well.

We have the case law database, we have free online legal resources and lots of other information that you can find on the site. You also find that we have a tab that goes to our YouTube channel and that is at youtube.com/divorce661, and on that site we have probably now an over of 150 videos that you can watch, tutorials, helpful tips, how to fill out certain forms, forms that you need for divorce, etc.

We have a lot of that information out there. Now we also have our podcast, if you prefer to listen to the information. You can listen to our podcasts. We do use soundcloud.com. So, you’ll see in our blog down there it’ll say Tim talks about divorce.

We have probably, I don’t know, maybe a hundred podcasts that we’ve uploaded to that site and if you are a blog talk radio listener, we also have a Wednesday evening show at 6PM that you can watch. We talk about various items related to California divorce and we will take callers and answer questions. People can call and get some free information from us.

So, lots of good information, again the website is divorce661.com.

When people calls us for assistance or to use our service, we often hear that they’ve watch numerous videos, read many articles and before they even calling us and how helpful it has been for them.

So we do recommend that you go to our site, it’s probably the most resourceful, informational website for California divorce out there. All the content is published by me, including the blog, the podcast, the videos everything is coming at my hand.

So, if you have more questions rather, and you like to talk to me direct about our paid service. We do specialize in preparing divorce documents in California. We’d be happy to take care of that for you.

Until then, fell free to cruise our website and get all the information that you need and all the help that you can find and then just give us a call if you’re ready to get started or if you need some assistance with your divorce.

My name is Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com.

Thanks for watching! If you are on Google+.

Thanks for listening! If you are on our podcast, and we will talk to you soon.

How To Request Attorney Fees During Divorce | California Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Request Attorney Fees During Divorce | California Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

Good morning! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

And today we are talking about how to request attorney’s fees and why you may want to request attorney’s fees when going through divorce.

So, many times we’ll handle divorce cases here with our firm that are amicable and no need for an attorney, sometimes these cases may become “un-amicable” at some point, if that’s the word.

And you may need to get an attorney for one reason another.

Other times people start with me to get as much paperwork done as possible at a lower cost before going out and hire an attorney.

Either case, if you fall into any of those circumstances and you need to get attorney’s fees, this is how you’re going to do it and why you may need it.

I’ve had several cases where one of the spouses hasn’t had no access to money. Either because they never had access to the accounts or in this particular circumstances, as soon as they knew that there was going to be a divorce filed, the working spouse either close the accounts or remove all the money from the account so the spouse has no money to hire an attorney if she even or he even wanted to.

Going as far as even changing the direct deposit account that the money is going into and leaving some of these clients with no access to money whatsoever.

So, of course, they get scrapped some money together to get started with me, so we can the case filed for divorce. But then, then what? Then they need to get an attorney especially if the other party gets one themselves.

So, what you’d want to do in this case is file a motion, you can either file an ex-party motion for attorney’s fees or you can go in on a regular motion and set a court date out 45 to 60 days from the day of file, but many cases you’re going to need to go on ex-party because you’re going to need to get money as soon as possible or ask the court to make an order for attorney’s fees as fast as possible so you can have access to legal representation, again this is if you need to go the attorney route.

So, this would be done on a request for order, prior known as a order to show cost. This is the FL-300, request for order.

And on the second page there is a box where you can request attorney’s fees and cost.

Now, what are the requirements and guidelines and when will this be ordered? That’s a great question. That is for the judge to determine. But I was speaking with an attorney the other day who said he was recently at a meeting with some of the judges. They’re talking about different things about the court, and then they were saying they don’t know why more folks who either represent themselves or with an attorney aren’t requesting an attorney’s fees because they’re ready, willing and able to ward attorney’s fees in these cases where people request them.

So a couple of the guidelines where you might find that this be ordered is in cases where there’s no absolutely income earned by the spouse and no access to money, and the other spouse has the ability to pay – that would be one reason that the court or the judge may order attorney’s fees.

So, it really boils down to that, having equal access to money to hire an attorney. Now, if the parties make the same amount of money, probably won’t have a chance of getting it.

If there is double income earners, if you make $50, your husband makes $100, perhaps there may be an order for attorney’s fees but maybe it will be a smaller amount.

Now, you can ask for whatever amount you want, you know, $5000, $10,000, $2,500 – whatever the case may be, but when you go to that hearing, it’s going to be up to the judge to order how much and it’s going to be up to the judge how that is paid.

So, here, it becomes an issue. We’ve had cases where people where have had no orders for attorney’s fees and costs, but then they ordered the payments – so let’s say, it was $5000, in small increments of let’s say $200 a month payable to the other party’s attorney.

So, here’s the issue: you now have an order for attorney’s fees, but they’re payable in increments of $200 a month. How are you going to hire an attorney and tell them “Hey, I have a new order for attorney’s fees of $5000 but you’re not going to get paid except for $200 a month.” Good luck finding an attorney that will accept a retainer of $200 to get your case started.

So start bringing that up.

Hope this will get you started if you’re representing yourself and you need to get some attorney’s fees, we can help you file the motion, we can help you go an ex-party, and get the money you need to hire an attorney if that’s what you need to do.

My name is Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com . 661-281-0266, and as always, thanks again for reading!

What Is A Divorce Dissomaster Report | Santa Clarita Child & Spousal Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What Is A Divorce DissoMaster Report | Santa Clarita Child & Spousal Support

Good morning, this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

And today I wanted to address, and talk about what a DissoMaster is.

When you’re going through divorce; and you are married for a certain period of time; or if you have kids. You’re going to need to find out what spousal support or child support is going to be. That means how much it’s going to be.

The courts, and if you’re using an attorney, would use what’s called a DissoMaster report.

Essentially what it is, is a calculation that will take into consideration the income of the parties, as far as spousal support, and including child support. it will also include who has the children, what percentage of time.

So time share and income will help determine child support. now generally you’d have to go down to the court house, down to the facilitator to get a copy of a DissoMaster, meet with the facilitator so you could get a DissoMaster printout so you can include that with your final judgment paperwork.

Well I am happy to announce that we have finally purchased the software for the DissoMaster software, and we are now able to complete dissomaster printouts for child support, and spousal support right here in our office when you’re representing yourself.

So a few things I want to say about that. Number one, our service has just gotten better because we’re able to provide this service in the past, we had to send folks down to the facilitator to make an appointment in order to get this printout and now we will be able to do that for you in our office.  And secondly, people that did not want to go the court were using either an attorney or another service that were charging upwards of two hundred and fifty dollars to complete this printout for you.

So this will just be an added service that we now offer with our firm. We’re hoping to do it at no extra charge, in fact, if you are representing yourself, and you are attempting to do your divorce case yourself and you need a DissoMaster printout for your case, we’d be happy as a free service to provide that to you.

Provided that it’s something that we can do quickly and easily for you, and you have an understanding as far as time share, custody visitation, and the income of the parties.

Again, this is Tim Blankenship; hope that it was helpful in regards to dissomasters. If you need a printout or need to find out what guideline support is in your case, please feel free to give us a call. You can reach as at 661-281-0266.

Thanks!

Sole And Community Property In Petition Must Be Disposed Of In California Divorce Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Sole And Community Property In Petition Must Be Disposed Of In California Divorce Judgment

Hi, this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

And today were talking about an item on the Los Angeles Superior Court judgment checklist.

This is their rejection checklist that they use when you submit your final divorce paperwork and it says, “We regret, we must return this judgment for the following reasons checked”.

So, I decided I’m going to do a series of videos and discuss all the different reasons in this two and three page judgment reject sheet, of what could happen and how to correct that or if you haven’t submitted it yet, prevent it from happening.

So, today we’re going to talk about, and this is on page two, we’re going to talk about, under where it says judicial council form FL-180 and then on page two it says, “All sole and community property listed in the petition must be disposed of in the judgment.”

Okay, so, when you filed your petition and I have one here, when you filed your petition at the bottom of page one. Number four, it says: separate property and on page two number five it says: community property.

Now, at that point you may have either listed certain property, maybe you listed some items at your separate property and listed some items as your community property or maybe you marked the box that says in property declaration, form FL-160 or you said in attachment four.

So, if you listed property below or if you listed property on that FL-160 or in an attachment. All that property in your final judgment must be disposed of.

So, let’s say that you listed ten items and it doesn’t matter if you listed them below here, in a separate declaration, in an attachment or in the property declaration. Regardless of where you listed at, if you listed ten items on property, on separate property, when it comes time to do the judgment paperwork, all those items need to be given or signed to either you or your spouse.

If the court, in going through the judgment find nine items that are listed and distributed or assigned to one of you but the tenth item isn’t, they’re going to reject the entire divorce. That’s because if you list property on your petition or in any attachment to that petition, that court needs to assign that to either you or your spouse.

You can imagine if you forgot to list a checking account that had $10,000 in it, you listed on the petition but you didn’t assign it to either party in the divorce judgment and the judge signs the case. Then you have this outstanding asset, this $10,000 checking account that hasn’t been confirmed to anyone.

Now, what are you going to do with that? You are going to have to go back to court. So, that’s why the judgment would be rejected, because it doesn’t address all of the issues of assets and debts being distributed that were listed in the petition.

So, to avoid that, just make sure that if you list something that when you do the final judgment paperwork that each of the items that were listed, either in the property declaration, if it was a default judgment or if you marked the property declaration box. You are going to want make sure that all property is listed on the judgment paperwork and is assigned to one party or the other.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce 661.com.

If you have any questions, please give me a call – 661-281-0266.

Thanks and have a great day!

Divorce Forms You Need To Complete After Hearing | California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Divorce Forms You Need To Complete After Hearing | California Divorce

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

And today I’m going to tell you how and what you need to do after you’ve gone to a hearing for your divorce.

Now, this is going to be specifically about, say, a request for order, an order show cause and that type of hearing, maybe you filled a motion to get some temporary orders for spousal support, child support, something like that.

So, you’re going to go to your court date, you’re going to have a hearing, if both parties were there, the judge will make orders, even if both parties are not there the judge can still make orders but in that case you’re going to have to take some additional steps to be done in this case.

So if you go to court, I just had a client and this is based on a specific example I just had. I had a client, go to court, filed the motion, went to court, the judge made orders and her spouse did not appear.

So the judge made some orders and advised her that she needed to complete an order after hearing and give notice.

So, of course her question was what does that mean? So, I wanted to clarify that for those that maybe completely doing your divorce on your own without the assistance of, let’s say a firm such us ours and you wouldn’t know what to do.

So, this is for you folks. What you have to do is what’s called an order after hearing. There are some forms online you can find that are fill-able. You can fill out the order after hearing and basically documents what the judge said.

Now, one of the first things you’re going to need is the minute order. The minute order is what the clerk types up of what the judge said at that particular hearing on that particular date. So, you’re going to first need to obtain a copy of that and for more information on that, you can watch a video I did on that as well.

Once you have the minute order, you’re going to take the order that was indicated on that minute order and you’re going to write that on the order after hearing. You’re going to use the different attachments necessary depending on what was ordered. Was it attorney’s fees, was it child support, custody and visitation. Once you see this fill-able order after hearing, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

So, you’re going to fill out that main page and then you’re going to do whatever attachments for whatever orders were made and then you’re going to write a letter to your spouse and include a copy of that order, letting them know that this is the order after hearing that you have typed up, here’s the copy of the minute order and that you need them to sign the order after hearing so you can submit it to the court to be signed.

You see, when they have one party do the paperwork, the other party has to sign it, agreeing with it.

Now, the rules say that they have ten days to respond to that letter. So, you mail a letter with the order after hearing and let them know they have ten days. After ten days have passed, you can submit that to the court and let the court know that, not only do they not object or call you, they didn’t respond and say there is something wrong with it.

So, if you’re going to do that, another thing that you have to fill out now is what’s called a declaration regarding execution of order after hearing and what it is, it’s a, you have to do this on the court’s pleading paper and you have to let the court know that you had the hearing, that you showed up, that orders were made, that you complied with the rule, you mailed the letter out, there is no objection, they didn’t respond and you’re asking the court to sign the order after hearing, make it an official order of the court without the other party’s signature and it is called a declaration of execution of order after hearing.

We can help you do that and you’ve been to a hearing and the judge advised you, you needed to complete an order after hearing, give us a call, we can take care of that get it filed and served for you and get it down to your court for you.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. Please give me a call, 661-281-0266 and talk to you soon!

Signing Divorce Papers Does Not Mean You Agree | California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Signing Divorce Papers Does Not Mean You Agree | California Divorce

Hi, this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.

And today I wanted to clear up some misunderstanding as it relates to when you are served divorce documents by mail.

So, we specialize in divorce in LA County and a lot of our cases are amicable. And in amicable divorce cases what we like to do as instead of having the original or initial documents served by a process server, we like to mail them out to your spouse.

So they can simply sign the form which is called the notice of acknowledgement of receipt. All they have to do is sign this form that says that they received the papers and mail it back to our office.

That will take the place of hiring a process server and saves us some time and money.

Now, what happens sometimes is when people receive the papers like the summons, the petition, and anything else that might be included in the initial documents, is they’ll read the documents and if there’s something that they don’t agree with, they’ll tell the other party that they’re not going to sign the papers.

And that doesn’t make any sense.

When you receive papers from say, our office, and we’ve sent them to you along with this notice of acknowledgement of receipt. All we’re asking is, that you sign this form which says that you received the documents.

It in no way means that you agree with anything inside the petition.

So in this current case, the spouse had an issue with the custody arrangement that his wife was asking for, and because of that, he let her know that he wasn’t going to sign this notice of acknowledgement of receipt because he didn’t agree.

That’s not the proper way to do that, all he needs to do is sign the notice of acknowledgement of receipt and mail it back to our office.

This simply lets the court know he was served, that he received their paper. It in no way means he agrees with anything in those papers, so what’s going to happen is instead of him just signing this form now we have to hire a process server to go out there and hand him the forms.

Now because a process server served him, does that mean that he agrees with what’s in the papers? Of course not. So it’s the same thing.

So, if you want to disagree with something that you’ve been served with, that’s when you file a response. That’s what the response is for.

So just wanted to make this quick video to let people know if you received papers from our office or from anyone else if you’re in a self-representative divorce case, and your spouse mails you this notice of acknowledgement of receipt along with the papers. Signing that only means you received the papers so you don’t have to hire a process server, hope that helps.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com we specialize in divorce in Los Angeles County. Please give me a call if you have any questions or need assistance with your divorce case 661-281-0266.

Thanks and have a great day!