I have written a similar article before regarding the benefits of filing for divorce first. In that article I stated that there is no real benefit to filing for divorce first.

I went on to say that the courts do not give any preference to who is the Petitioner (the one to file) or the Respondent. It is mostly about giving a name to the parties.

This is especially the case in amicable divorces where the parties are in agreement on the terms of their divorce.

But is there any advantage to filing for divorce first in a contested case when you hire an attorney. I read an article in the Santa Clarita Magazine where an attorney said there was an advantage to filing first. Honestly, it seemed the advantage was more to the attorney than the clients.

The first advantage, says this attorney, is having the ability to chose your court. If you live in Santa Clarita, the court you would go to automatically is San Fernando. But you have the option of filing in Los Angeles.

Why would a Santa Clarita resident want to file in downtown LA when San Fernando is much closer? The answer is you wouldn’t.

Here is the real answer is that many attorneys don’t like the choice of 2 judges in San Fernando and prefer to file downtown where they believe the judges are more favorable. So no real advantage here to the client.

The next reason posed is that there is a possibility that you will get sympathy from the judge. In one sentence he says you will probably not get any sympathy and in the next sentence says we are a no fault state. He suggests that judges are human beings and regardless if their is no true advantage, it may still be better to file first.

So if we stretch it, there may be advantages to filing for divorce first if you are going to hire and attorney and then again, perhaps not.

In the uncontested divorce cases our firm handles, there is absolutely no advantage to filing for divorce first. It is only when you go down the rabbit hole of hiring an attorney where their may be any benefit of filing for divorce first in Santa Clarita.

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