050: 16 Factors To A Happy Long Term Marriage

In this episode, we will talk about the 16 factors to a happy long term marriage. Will these 16 factors give you a better chance of having a happy long term marriage?

We’re going to talk about a little bit more about marriages and something we can learn from millionaires.

Now they say money doesn’t buy you love but it appears that is not correct.

There is a huge connection between successful marriages and successful wealth creation. And we have something that we can learn from millionaires.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

049: 5 Traits and 7 Qualities For A Successful Marriage

In this episode, we digress from divorce for a while and talk about what it takes to have and maintain a successful marriage.

We talked about Divorce a lot. I mean that is in every topic, every video, and every podcast we record. We talked about Divorce a lot.

But in this video I want to talk about an interesting article I came across that was talking about some of the key traits and qualities you should have and your spouse should have to have a successful marriage or you should look for in a future spouse to have a successful marriage.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

046 Will Same Sex Marriages In California Create A Divorce Boom

In this episode, we talk about whether or not all the new same sex marriages will ultimately end in more divorce cases.

I was talking to an attorney over the weekend. And he seems to think that there is going to be a boom when it comes to Gay Divorce. The reason being obviously is that we’re just–a lot of States have had the gay marriage going on for quite some time.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

Signs Your Marriage Is Over | Santa Clarita Divorce

I came across an interesting video on YouTube that gave their perspective on the signs that your marriage is over and thought I would share it.

It basically says that folks do not try to repair their marriage until it is too late and went into detail about the different steps or levels folks go through during their marriage.

The steps as outlined by Larry Bilotta in this video are:

  • Content
  • Confused
  • Struggling
  • Miserable
  • Point of no return

Here is the video

I found the video to be informative and interesting.  The video had over 180,000 views, so I guess others have found it interesting as well.

One thing that I found to be true, was his comment that over 80% of divorce cases are filed by women. That statistic is pretty much in line with what we see here in Santa Clarita.

At least 80% of the folks that walk through our doors to file for divorce are women or at least the divorce is initiated by the women.

I was not sure, but pretty sure Larry says that it is the mans fault for not understanding their wives which drives them down these steps.  I was not 100% sure on that.

In any case, thought I would share.  I actually did watch the entire video which was only 10 minutes long and it seemed he was selling a “fix your marriage” type program.

As a note, we are not promoting this product or service, it was just for informational purposes for our readers.

If you have reached that point of no return in your marriage, as stated in the video, please give us a call as we can help you with your divorce in California.

Get in touch with Tim Blankenship on Google+

Don’t Plan Wedding Until California Divorce Finalized

I have two current clients that have planned their next wedding and their California divorce is not finalized yet.  If the issues of this are not obvious enough, I will discuss in detail why this is not a good idea.

But first, lets talk a little bit about why they ended up in this predicament.  Both of these clients had long been separated from their current spouses.  They just never got around to going through the divorce process and making their divorce official.

They both met new people, started dating which lead to getting engaged.  They both even set a wedding date.

Now they have to get their divorce completed and in a hurry. The problems this causes are many, and we wanted to address a few of them.

The first problem is that you cannot predict when your divorce will be finalized.  Everyone thinks that divorce takes 6 months when in fact  the 6 month figure is the SOONEST your divorce can be finalized.  It does not mean that your divorce will be finalized.  And if you live in California it is pretty much guaranteed that your divorce will take much longer than 6 months.

This is due to the layoffs and Court closures in California.  The Courts are severely impacted with tons of divorce cases and they just can’t get through them fast enough.

We are seeing divorce cases in Los Angeles County routinely take 8 to 10 months to complete.  And we are talking about 8 to 10 months from the time the final judgment or stipulation is filed with the court.

Okay, so we know the courts are slow.  So unless your wedding date is 2 years out, I would just not do it.

Make it a priority to get your existing marriage ended by filing for divorce right away so you don’t have to worry about these issues.  One of my clients I have has a wedding date in 3 weeks and the judgment has still not been signed off by the court and there is nothing you can do to speed up the process.  They are worried about hoping their divorce gets finalized and not on the their wedding.

Here is another issue.  Sometimes you will be required to prove that you are not married or if you were married have to prove that you are divorced by providing a court approved divorce judgment or decree.  They will not issue a marriage license in some cases, until you provide this proof.

One of my clients has told me that the church he wished to get married in will not even schedule their wedding until they their prior marriage is over.

So what is the moral of this story.  If you are one of those folks that has long been separated from your spouse and never finalized it, you should really consider getting it done.

And if you are  dating someone else, you better really make getting your divorce finalized a priority before things get serious.  You won’t want to find yourself in the same shoes as my current clients.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in California divorce.  We are headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and can help you with your divorce anywhere in California.

Do You Have A Short Term Marriage – Santa Clarita Divorce

Over the years, I have helped people that have been married for only a few weeks to folks who have been married almost 50 years. Is divorce any different for short term marriages? The answer is a resounding yes and no.

For the most part, there is no difference in the actual divorce process. Regardless of how long or how short your marriage was, the process and forms that are necessary to complete to get divorced are the same.

For instance, you still have to file for divorce. You have to complete a summons and petition no matter what the length of marriage is.

The main difference in a short term marriage is mostly about how much community property is involved. Just as a brief recap, community property is that which you accumulated during the marriage and separate property is that which you had before marriage.

So lets say you were only married for 6 months. The assets and debts you accumulated during those six months would be subject to being divided. The assets and debts you accumulated during those 6 months are going to be much less than say someone married for 20 years.

But what about that home you owned before marriage? Does your spouse have any right to your home? This is where we separate what is law and what makes sense. Should your spouse have any right to your home you owned before you were married if you were only married for 6 months? I don't think so.

Short term marriages, defined by the courts as anything less than 10 years, have some different rules surrounding things such as spousal support as well.

So there are some differences between a short term marriage and long term marriage as far as certain financial aspects, but the process, forms and procedure of getting divorced never change.

A short term marriage, you could say, may be slightly easier as there is less assets and debts to divide and list on the final judgment.

There is no shame in ending a short term marriage. Sometimes you just grow apart or were never meant to be. If you gave it your best shot and it makes sense to get divorced, then it is what it is.

What I tell people is that they are not setting any records by only being married a short time. We have seen it all.

On Completing Your Nullity of Marriage In Santa Clarita

On Completing Your Nullity of Marriage In Santa Clarita

We are proud to say that we recently helped a client complete a nullity of their marriage.

To be honest, we were prepared for failure, but were going to give it our best effort and fight. Why do I say this?

Because a nullity of marriage is much different than a divorce. In a divorce, you don’t need a good reason to get divorced. In fact, you don’t need any reason at all. All you need to say is that there are irreconcilable differences, and nobody will ever ask the reason. Sadly, nobody cares.

However, when it comes to a nullity, you do need to have a reason. And it has to be one of a few legal reasons. And you have to prove it to the court by appearing in court yourself to explain why the judge should annul your marriage.

The reason we took this case on is because this client had already spent $25,000 in attorney fees with a law firm who was unable to complete it for them.

You see, when you run out of money and are unable to pay your attorney fees, that attorney that was your advocate and in your corner no longer has your best interest in mind. No money, no representation.

In this particular case, the reason the nullity was requested was because one of the spouses was still legally married at the time of the marriage. This is one of the legal reasons you can use to get a marriage annulled.

Both spouse were in agreement with the nullity and it was a matter of getting the matter heard in front of the judge who has to make the order and sign the judgment saying he approved of the nullity and that there was legal reason to order it.

There was one other issue. The husband was having another child with his new fiancee’ in 4 weeks and wanted his previous marriage dealt with so his new child would be considered his legitimate child.

Because the nullity had to be heard in front of a judge and because the spouses were in agreement, I sent both of them to court on an ex-parte hearing so they could have their case heard.

I was not sure if the judge would hear the case, because ex-parte hearings are supposed to be emergency cases only, but we used the fact that he was having another child as the emergency. I even told my client I was not sure what would happen at the hearing.

Well the starts were aligned that day and the judge heard the matter and ordered the marriage annulled effective immediately. Our client could not have been happier.

It just goes to show that you don’t need an attorney, even for an annulment of marriage. I don’t assume we will be handling many annulments, but wanted to show folks how hard we work to make things go right for our clients.