How To Avoid Being Overwhelmed During Divorce In Santa Clarita

I have been doing a lot podcasts where I have been discussing some tips on how to avoid getting overwhelmed and frustrated.

I gave some tips, which I will explain here, on how to go about breaking up the divorce paperwork into different steps.

Most people try to tackle all the paperwork at once. This is a bad idea. The first thing you need to take care of the the initial divorce forms that are necessary to file your divorce case.

The only forms you need to complete to file for divorce in California is the Summons, Petition and Family law case cover sheet. If you have kids, also include a UCCJEA.

Once you have these 3 of 4 forms completed, you can file them with the court, get a stamped copy and be ready to serve the divorce forms on your spouse. Get this done right away as this is when the 6 months waiting period begins.

Now that you have your spouse served and proof of service filed with the court, you can move onto the next step.

The next step is to complete your disclosures. This means doing your income and expense declaration and the schedule of assets and debts. Make sure to serve copies of most recent statements when you do this. Don’t file these with the court, you only serve them on your spouse. The only form you will file here, is the declaration regarding service of declaration of disclosure. This tells the court you complied with this step.

Once you have done all this, all is left is the divorce judgment forms. I say “just” but this is, by far, the hardest part. There are up to 25 different page of divorce forms you have to complete here. Make just one mistake, and the court will reject your filing and return everything to you.

This will set your divorce back by at least 3 months. This is why we recommend that, even if you have completed all the documents yourself up to this point, that you have a professional company prepare your divorce judgment for you.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm in Santa Clarita that specializes in divorce.