Should I Complete My California Divorce On My Own

Today I want to answer the question, of whether or not you should do your own divorce or not.

So let me first start by saying it’s completely possible for you to do your divorce on your own.

It’s just going to come down to a couple of factors. Do you have the time to invest to attempt to learn the process of filling out all the forms, all the nuances as far as what forms need to be filed and served, and including preparing the filed judgment, which can be twenty-five to thirty pages long?

So really you have to just take into consideration if you have the time to invest in doing that and I get this all the time have people call and they’ll say “Tim, I just don’t have the money to pay your fee.” and I’ll say “Okay, well, you have an option: Do you have more time than money or more money than time?”

– And that’s going to be the first question you should ask yourself.

If you’re not working or you’re unemployed you obviously have more time than money. So you’re probably going to want to do this on your own in most cases because you have the time to invest to sit at a computer, go down to the court self-help centers, and spend several hours in there for a couple of days trying to get this  paperwork done.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be confusing, you’re not going to like it, but that may be your option if you don’t have the funds to get professional services such as ours to help with the divorce.

The next thing you want to consider is how far in the process are you going to get before you ask for help?

The divorce process starts off pretty easy. There are only a couple of forms you need to fill out to file and get a case number.

The summons, the petition, the case cover sheet, if you have children then you need a declaration regarding children you have to complete, and you can get a case number, and those aren’t too tough to fill out; but then it gets tougher as you go.

The next step is doing your financial disclosures, and people have lots of questions on how to complete those, and they have trouble completing those, and even if you get through that, the third and hardest part, and I break this into phases, that’s why I say, one, two, and three.

This third part is completing your judgment which wraps up all the agreements of your divorce.  That can be twenty-five pages long. And there’s lots of check boxes; and fill-in the blanks; and the information you have to include; and property declarations; and checklists to watch out for; and people make mistakes on that.

So if you have the money, we recommend you, use our services right from the get-go.

Because what we find are people that have started the process, and got to the process to a certain degree.

We always have to go back and fix things, and amend certain forms.

In addition, when you come to us, you’ve wasted so much time trying to fill out the initial paperwork, to your disclosures.

I have some people that have gone all the way through as to have made the judgment. Had it rejected and then came to us, and unfortunately there is so much, there is actually more work to do cause we had to correct forms, amend documents, refill out forms, some form hadn’t been done in a while so we had to redo it for them.

So they didn’t save any money by trying to get through the process.

‘Cause it was just as much work or more to work to complete for them. Even though they have done so much of the paperwork, and spend so much of their time.

My recommendation is if you have more time than money. Of course, you’re going to have to do it yourself, but if you have the money, we recommend you start with us right from the beginning.

Don’t attempt to do this yourself, because it’s going to cost you the same regardless of where you’re at in the process when you come to us.

‘Cause we’re going to have to fix the documents that you did. Not because you don’t know what you’re doing, well, yes, it is because you don’t know what you’re doing.

What I wanted to say is not because you’re not smart enough to do it. It’s just that it’s very confusing to do.

So please give us a call, we’d love to help you out with your divorce and if you’re in California – 661-281-0266.

We’re headquartered in Santa Clarita which is northern Los Angeles County, and we do serve all the courts in California.

I’m looking forward to talking to you 661-281-0266. Our main website has tons of information and that is divorce661.com.

Thanks!