Who Can Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Who Can Serve Divorce Papers | Santa Clarita

Hi there! This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. We’re a licensed and bonded legal preparation service and we do specialize in the divorce process.

Today, we are going to talk about who can be a process server, who can you use to serve your divorce papers essentially.

I wanted to give you the court’s version of who can be a process server and what they consider to be about process’ service when it comes to your divorce.

Now, what we’re talking about here is serving the initial divorce documents, so this would be your summons and petition in particularly. So, looking at the court’s website, we’ve identified a process server as the ‘server’ or the ‘process server’ can be a friend or relative, a coworker, a county sheriff or marshal, professional process server, or anyone over 18 who is not part of the case.

So, when it comes to divorce, this is a very important aspect right here. This essentially means, you cannot serve your own divorce paper, you cannot hand your divorce paperwork to your own spouse. It may make the most sense especially in many cases where husband and wife are still living together.

When you file for divorce it may seem silly to have to get someone else, another third party, to hand the paperwork done for them so they can then hand the paperwork to your spouse, but if you don’t do that, you’re not going to have an effective process of service. You cannot serve your own spouse—I just want to make that very clear.

Make sure that the person is not party to the case. In divorce, if it’s not you or your husband, it can pretty much be anyone else as long as they’re 18 years of age and make sure that they know how to fill out the proof of service of summons.

When you work with our service, our legal document preparation service for your divorce, we will take care of all that. In fact, we don’t even like to use the process of having a process server go out or using the proof of service.

We use what’s called a Notice and Acknowledgement of Receipt. It’s an easier way and a cost effective way because you don’t have to hire a process server to server the divorce papers.

If you’re looking for a professional, licensed and bonded legal preparation service, please give us a call. You can find us at divorce661.com, or any of our websites. We do specialize in the divorce process. We provide a 100% online divorce solution, so any in Los Angeles County or California for that matter, we would be happy to help you out. You can reach us at 661-281-0266.

What Is A No Fault Divorce | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What Is A No Fault Divorce | Santa Clarita

Hi there! This is Tim Blankenship owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. We’re a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service specialized in the divorce process.

Today, we’re answering the question ‘What is a “no fault” divorce?’ and ‘Is California a “no fault” divorce state?’.

So, because I’m not an attorney, I can’t give legal advice and whenever I feel that it’s kind of on the edge, I will always give you the information but I’ll point you to where I found it. So it’s not me giving you the advice, technically, it’s the court.

Today we are answering this question using the California court (judicial branch of California) website– Frequently Asked Questions and let’s see what they say about what is “no fault” divorce.

In California, says, a “no fault” divorce is any divorce where the spouse or domestic partner that is asking for the divorce does not have to prove that the other spouse or domestic partner did something wrong.

California is a “no fault” divorce state, which means that to get divorced in California you NEVER have to prove that the other person did something wrong. To get a no fault divorce, 1 spouse or domestic partner has to state that the couple cannot get along. Legally, this is called “irreconcilable differences”.

Now, this is interesting because I get calls and on occasion the spouses contacted me wants to tell me what they’ve done or what the spouse has done and why they’re getting divorce and they want to file first because they feel there’ll be some advantage. Well, there is no advantage to filing first. Second of all, the courts honestly don’t care what reason, even if you don’t have a reason at all to get divorced. All you have to do is mark this box saying irreconcilable differences and there’s no proof.

They’re never going to ask you on what’s going on or why can’t you get along. They don’t care. That’s why it’s called a “no fault” divorce and California is a “no fault” divorce state. So you don’t have to ever reason to get divorced.

If you’re looking for an affordable way to get through your divorce process, please give us a call or visit our website for more information.

Thank you!

What If Spouse Won’t Agree To Divorce | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

What If Spouse Won’t Agree To Divorce | Santa Clarita

Hi! My name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. I’m a licensed and bonded legal document preparation assistant that specialize only in divorce.

Today we are talking about and answering the question of what happens if my wife doesn’t want to give me a divorce.

So, if your spouse doesn’t want to cooperate, there is a way to still work on the divorce process and I’m going to use the California Court’s website to answer this question because in their Frequently Asked Questions here, they have responded to this question – so instead of just me giving you what I think, I’m going to refer you to into the court’s website as they answered the question here for.

So the question here is ‘What if my spouse or domestic partner does not want to give me a divorce?’.

And the answer is: In California, it is not necessary for both spouses or domestic partners to agree to the divorce. Either spouse or domestic partner can decide and their marriage and partnership is not necessary for the other spouse to agree or give you a divorce.

The spouse or domestic partner who does not want to get divorced cannot stop the process by refusing to participate in the case. If she did not have to sign anything to agree to the divorce, if your spouse or domestic partner does not participate in the divorce case, you’ll still be able to get a default judgment and the divorce will go through.

So, sometimes when I’m preparing uncontested divorce cases, one of the parties that I may be assisting will ask: “Well Tim, she’s not going to fill it out any of the paperwork, she’s not going to respond and she honestly doesn’t care one way or the other and I said: “That’s fine, there’s nothing the spouse can do to stop you from getting divorced”. As this court says here, they can’t stop it even if they don’t participate. It’s called a default judgment.

I’ve done a video on what it takes to get a default judgment and that happens all the time. Generally, courts will approve those if there’s an unequal division of assets and debts. There might be a reason for the court to call you in and have a couple of questions for you. But if your spouse doesn’t want to respond and they don’t want to participate, you can get what’s called a default judgment.

Again, my name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist, licensed and bonded legal document preparation service, specializing in the divorce process.

How To Complete California Divorce Summons | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Complete California Divorce Summons | Santa Clarita Divorce

Hi! This is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist, and we’re going to continue on with how to represent yourself and how to prepare the specific forms.

And a little bit about us quickly, we are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service, we specialize in the divorce process in California, we have years of experience working for the courts, in the self-help centers, and for local area family law firms, here in Santa Clarita

We have multiple websites; we serve all of Los Angeles County. If you are looking for specific court information in your location, feel free to use one of those websites you see on your screen, you will get court specific information; there’s video resources and a host of other information that you will find very helpful when representing yourself and trying to learn about the divorce process.

The text in this post is the transcript of the below video describing how to complete the California divorce summons and explaining its use.  

So today we are going to talk about the summons. We are now on to the summons; let’s take a look at what the court says we need to complete here next. We’ve been talking about step one here and we talked about the petition; now we are going to talk about the summons, FL-110 and how to prepare that form.

So let’s take a look, I have one here, I have summons …petition… here are the summons. So let’s talk about the summons, and we’re going to fill it out.

If you have been served divorce papers, make sure to check out our article on how to file a California Divorce Response.

There is not a whole lot to fill out on here but you want to draw your attention onto some of the information that’s on here. So we’re going to, as a petitioner, we’re going to complete the summons here; notice to respondent, so this is going be your spouse’s name.

Okay, respondent’s name, I think we have been going by John Smith throughout this video series. You won’t have a case number yet because this is one of the initial filing forms.

So let’s talk about this, there’s some directions the court is giving to both you and the person who’s going to receive this. They’re indicating that you have 30 days after the summons and petition are served on you to file a response, so this is to your spouse, at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner.

A letter or phone call will not protect you. So it’s important that you let your spouse read this ‘cause what they’re talking about is some of the legal actions you can take if your spouse doesn’t file a response; and how to proceed through the divorce process, even if they don’t respond.

Let’s go down the page here, okay name and address of the court, so you’re simply going to type in, Los Angeles Superior Court, 900 Third Street, San Fernando CA 91340.

The name and address and phone number of the attorney, or the petitioner without an attorney, so this will be you; and one two three, 222 Main Street, City, State and Zip, and phone number, okay, we’re going to put that on in here.

Don’t fill out this date, that’s for the clerk, don’t put the date in here, leave it blank. Here you have: check this box as an individual. Go down to page 2, and I want to draw your attention to this big box here on page 2 so, it says warning, important information; you need to read this, this applies to both the petitioner and the respondent in the divorce process.

There are these standard family law restraining orders that go into effect immediately, as far as removing the minor children from parties, cashing, taking out money, transferring, doing any of these things, these types of things with your finances; concealing, disposing of property, you know, you want to keep everything in stash while you are restrained from making any changes, including taking folks off of life insurance and things of that nature.

So, at this point let me draw your attention to this, again there isn’t much to this particular form; it is one of the initial documents, you have the summons and the petition that are required.

There’s also another form, called a Family Law Case coversheet, that’s one of the local area forms, that’s why it’s not discussed on the court website. So if you need more information on that, please give me a call; we’re also going to prepare a video on that as well.

So to just to recap on this, this covered the summons and you want to take a look on the automatic restraining orders that kick in once you start the process. Again we are licensed and bonded legal document preparation service serving all of Los Angeles County and all the courts in Los Angeles County.

We provide a full service divorce company in Santa Clarita and serving all of California. which means we can complete your divorce regardless of where you are in California.  You do not have to come to our office; we have the divorce process down to a science, it’s very seamless and simple when you use our professional divorce services. If not, I hope you enjoy the videos and hope they are helpful in testing you and completing your divorce forms.

Again if you have any further questions, feel free to call us, visit one of our local websites for your area. Other than that I hope you enjoyed and you continue on watching the videos. We hope to have several hundred videos at the time when our video series is complete covering all aspects of divorce. Again, Tim Blankenship, SCV Legal Doc Assist. Have a good day.

How To File For Divorce In California (Step 1 – Summons & Petition)

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This is the first video in a series on how to file for divorce in California.  This post will discuss the first step of which forms you will need to file for divorce.

We are also going to go line-by-line and discuss how to fill out each of the forms.  You will also find the video embeded below if you prefer to watch us demonstrate how the forms are completed.

Also, keep in mind that we do have an online divorce document assembly service where you won’t have to worry about how to fill out the forms, as the software fills out all the divorce forms for you.

Click Here on this link to the software

We are licensed and bonded in the county of Los Angeles and can serve you in any court located in California. We are providing these how-to videos so you can get through the entire divorce process on your own if that is what you so choose to do, however for those that find it confusing or don’t have the time to go through the divorce themselves, please give us a call as we are a full serve divorce document preparation firm.

Now, in this particular video we are going to talk about step 1, which is above, which is filing the forms. In the previous video we talked about the legal steps for divorce and went through the 4 steps as outlined by the court system.

So let’s jump in. Step 1, again is going to be talking about starting the process and what forms you need to complete, we’re gonna talk about getting those forms completed.

Okay so here’s step 1, according to Los Angeles county process: The petitioner, who’s the person who will file the first divorce forms with the court, is going to file 2 forms, the petition FL-100, and the summons form FL-110, and if there’s children, FL-105. Today we’re just gonna talk about the petition and the summons, and then we will talk about the other steps.

So let’s jump right in to the FL-100. Okay this is the FL-100. This is the form that is going to be the petition, the 2 page form. And what I’m gonna go do is go through this quickly, not going to fill out every box, but show you essentially what you need to do to get this completed.

If you’re representing yourself, you’re going to put in your name essentially, so here we can type in, if it’ll allow me, my computer is freezing up now, in any case, up on this top box you’re going to put in your name, your address, your phone number, let’s see if it’s gonna let me do this now, let’s…okay, little computer freeze there.

Alright, so today we’ll be John Smith, 123 Main Street, and address, California, the phone number is gonna go here…okay… your email address is optional, and for attorney name you’re gonna say In Pro Per, it means you’re representing yourself.

If you’re in the county of Los Angeles, this would be Los Angeles, and you’ll put the court information here, let’s just use our San Fernando Branch, it’s 900 Third Street, same, and that’s North Valley, you’ll be the petitioner so John Smith would be the petitioner here, oops, and then you put your spouse’s name here as the respondent. Don’t worry about the case number.

This is for dissolution of marriage. If the address that you indicate on here is for yourself in the last six months you mark petitioner to which both of you have been a resident of the state for the last six months you can mark both boxes its fine.

Date of marriage, date of separation, and then you’re gonna tally the totals, years and months of your marriage. Here you’ll indicate wether there are children or not. If you have children, their name, birthday, age, and sex, very simple. Separate property discusses property that you had before marriage and after separation and there are some other properties but because we’re not attorneys we can’t advise you on what that is.

So here you can either write in the property here that’s your separate property or say see attached or you can leave it blank or there’s some boiler point language that we use that the law firms use as well that basically says we’re gonna settle amends and list the separate property later on.

Page two is going to be regarding community property, accumulated during marriage and debts; you can do the same thing here, you can use the same boiler plate language here or “see attached”. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s going to be irreconcilable differences, California’s a no fault state, so essentially they don’t care the reason, they just call it irreconcilable differences.

And I know I’m going through it fast, but I don’t want this video to be fifteen minutes long, so feel free to pause this at any of your time if you’re trying to keep up and complete the forms along with me.

Alright, and legal custody of the children, you can mark either that you’re the petitioner, or respondent, or joint, same with physical custody, that where the children will live.

If you wanna have visitation to one party, you can also attach additional forms here if you want orders for child visitation or holiday schedules and things of that nature. If you have a child that was born prior to your marriage, you’re gonna want to mark this box, this is to determine parentage of any child born to the petitioner and respondent prior to marriage, if not leave that unchecked.

If you want the court to terminate jurisdiction to award spousal support to the other party you would mark this box. Here if you want your name back, your former name. And other, anything else you’d like to ask, again we have some boiler point language to that as well. Just put in the date and you type your name here, sign it here, and this form is done.

Now let’s move on to the FL-110. This is the summons. You’re gonna type the other party’s name here, so spouse’s name will go here, okay your name is going to go here, who are we John Smith.

And now let’s talk about a little about what the petition, or the summons rather, discusses. This goes over some legal actions here that the other party have. Now this is gonna be served on the other party. So this is to your spouse. That they have thirty days after receiving this to file the response; if after thirty days no response has been filed, there’s a procedure for moving forward; we’ll discuss that again in other videos.

One thing to note is that there are automatic restraining orders that go into effect on you once this is filed, and upon your spouse once they are served; and we are gonna cover those, not in detail, but to just acknowledge the fact that they are there and draw your attention to them.

Here is gonna be your name and address of the person filling out this form; and this will be, oh I’m sorry; this will be the name and address of the court. This will be your name, your address and phone number because you’re not represented by an attorney. You’re gonna mark this box here as an individual, if that’s the case.

And then on here are these standard family law restraining orders, being one that will take effect on you once this is filed and on your spouse once they are served.

So that is step one of the divorce process as outlined by the courts. These are the first two forms that you’ll fill out, you’ll file them with the court and they’ll send you a case number; and once you have that filed, and you have the case number, that’s the form that you’ll serve on your spouse and then we’ll talk about process and service and how you can accomplish that in other videos.
Again, my name is Tim Blankenship, SCV Legal Doc Assist, we specialize in the divorce process in California. We are providing these videos to you to hopefully help you in preparing your divorce and representing yourself.

And don’t forget that you can use our online divorce software by clicking on this link, which will save you a lot of time and frustration trying to figure out how to complete your divorce forms in California.

And again if you don’t have the time, you can’t figure it out and you’re looking for professionals to take care of the divorce paperwork for you, please give us a call, we’d be happy to help you; or visit one of our websites. And if you’re watching this video on youtube, or one of the other video site, we do have a link to our website below so you can contact us for additional information. Thanks so much.