How To Prepare Your California Divorce Judgment Forms
Today we’re talking about how to prepare your divorce judgment in California and specifically how to submit your divorce judgment.
First I want to just comment. I had a client come in recently and they went down to the self-help center, if you’re trying to prepare your own divorce, you may have gotten to this point where you filed the papers, you serve the papers, you’ve been to court a dozen times and you’ve hopefully done everything right up to this point and now you’ve gotten to the judgment phase.
Judgment is basically the agreement, the stipulation. It’s known by a couple different terms.
I had a client come in who had attempted to do their own divorce and this happens very frequently, people will call us at various stages. The very beginning, somewhere in the middle, at the end, when they’ve done everything and failed, they’ll call us.
This client came in and they brought the documents from the court, I don’t know if you can see this but this is probably forty, fifty pages. I should have counted them. This is the judgment and this is just one step and hopefully the last step of your divorce but this is probably a good forty – fifty pages and this just represents the last step of the divorce.
There have been many, many things you would have had to do to get to this point. So, the client got this package and just basically threw it down to our desk and said “I can’t deal with this anymore, can you help us?”
The first thing I want to talk about is, if you’re doing your own divorce, it’s going to be very difficult. This is again a fifty page judgment and it’s the last phase, you would have had to gone through a lot of issue up to this point.
We always tell people to call our service so we can help them in advance but you’re going to get to a certain point and it’s going to be different for everyone. How far are you willing to go before you reach out for help? When that happens give us a call.
But, if you’re going to ignore me, which is fine and you’re going to submit your judgment on your own, there’s a certain way you need to do it.
We’re going to go through these steps on how to prepare. Because a lot of people just mail it in and think they’re done. So, I want to at least help those folks who perhaps have more time than money and don’t want to use our service to do it on their own.
First of all, you’re going to need four copies of everything. Every document that’s in here, you’re going to need four copies.
You have an original and four copies of everything. It’s just easier to you that way. Some are three, some are two but if you just made four copies of everything you’re going to be much better off.
When you submit your judgment, you’re going to need to have three sets of envelopes addressed from the court. Now, you are going to have to do this, addressed from the court to you and the other party. We have now three sets.
First of all, for the judgment itself you’re going to have to have two envelopes from the court and these are going to be the nine by twelve, like the large envelope so they can mail unfolded because the judge uses the thicker part.
You’re going to have to have two 9 x 12. I think that’s the right size. Envelopes to fit these legal forms in so that court can mail them back to you.
Again, addressed from the court to you and with the proper postage. You’re going to have to actually weigh the documents or put on an extra amount of postage to get it back to you.
The second set is going to be a regular envelope and you’re just going to need a single stamp, first class stamp and that’s going to be for the notice of entry of judgment. It’s a separate form, it’s a single page and that is also mailed to you separate from the judgment. That’s the second set.
The third set, let me see if I can remember here. If you have a default case and a default is a request to enter default. FL-165. If you’re submitting a default case you’re going to have this form and that also requires a separate envelope. Again, addressed from the court to you with postage already attached.
So, you’re going to have those sets of envelopes with all of your copies submitted to the court.
I hope that is helpful. I’m actually going to scan this and I’m going to put it in a slide share so I can make this available to those people who are looking to do this on their own, and then if you get stuck, call us. We’d love to help you out.
If you’re watching this video on YouTube, click the link below and I will send you right to the article that will have the slide share where you can go to these documents and see all the forms, you can probably even print them out.
Divorce661.com is our website. My name is Tim Blankenship. We’d love to help you with your divorce in California if you’re looking for professional service. 661-281-0266.
Anywhere in California we can help you with your divorce. Feel free to give me a call.