How To Submit Default California Divorce Judgment With Spousal Support
Today I want to talk to you about something interesting, something that happened this week with a client of ours. This is in regards to a default judgment with spousal support.
We had a client come in several months ago wanted to file for a divorce who’s supposed to be amicable and as things progressed, it turn out to be not so amicable. Not that the other party is contesting anything but they didn’t want to participate in the divorce at all.
The party that we were working with was unemployed and the other party, her spouse was employed so we wanted to get her some spousal support because they had been married for quite some time.
Well, what happen is we submitted the default judgment and we set it for what’s called a prove up or default setting because we are asking for a specific amount of spousal support because she was not aware of what her spouse’s income was exactly.
So, we set the default hearing, she attended the hearing just the other day and I wanted to share with you what the judge told her.
Essentially, because she didn’t have any specific information pertaining to his income, the judge basically said she is not going to word her any spousal support and what the judge wanted is some type of indication of what he was making.
For instance, perhaps some pay stubs of course would be helpful. Obviously if she had a tax return or something along those lines, perhaps some bank statements. Because she have been separated for so long she had absolutely no source or proof of what he was making.
So, the judge simply said, I don’t know what your husband makes, therefore I cannot make an order for spousal support. And she issue a zero support order, she approved the judgment so the divorce was approved and then they reserve jurisdiction of spousal support.
What that means is she is going to have to go back to court at some time in the future whens she can find out what he is making in order to ask for spousal support. Just keep that in mind if you’re going through a default. It’s one of the downsides to a default. I know a lot of people do it because you don’t have to pay the other filing fee.
It was developed for filing and getting through your divorce when the other party doesn’t participate. That’s what the default is for.
But there are some downsides to it and this is one of them. Had husband participated, then he would have had to do his financial disclosures and we would have known what his income was and there could have been an order for spousal support.
When you’re going through divorce in California, there are several ways you can do this, by default, by hybrid which is an agreement without a response, so it’s default with agreement or just uncontested where both parties participate.
There are benefits to both or to all three and there are also some negatives to all three, really depending on your scenario, your circumstances can dictate what’s the best way to go. If you have any questions on that make sure to give us a call.
We specialize in affordable divorce in California, my name is Tim Blankenship, 661-281-0266 or you can get more information off our website at divorce661.com.