Can You Change Your Divorce Agreement? Here’s How! | Los Angeles Divorce

Can You Change Your Divorce Agreement? Here’s How!

Life is unpredictable, and so are the circumstances surrounding divorce. You might find yourself wondering if your divorce terms can be changed. The answer is yes! Understanding when and how to modify your divorce agreement is crucial for ensuring that your post-divorce life runs smoothly.

Why Change Your Divorce Agreement?

Various life events can necessitate legal updates to your divorce agreement. From changes in financial situations to adjustments in child custody, several reasons might prompt you to seek modifications. Here are some common scenarios:

  • A significant change in income.
  • Relocation for work or other personal reasons.
  • Changes in the needs or circumstances of your children.
  • New relationships or marriage.
  • Health issues affecting your ability to meet the terms of the agreement.

Understanding the Modification Process

It’s essential to ensure that any changes you make to your divorce agreement are recognized by law to avoid complications in the future. The modification process typically involves going back to court, but there are ways to make it less daunting and more efficient.

Case Study: Sarah’s Relocation

Let’s take a look at a real-life case. Sarah had to relocate for work and needed to adjust her custody schedule. Instead of going through a lengthy court battle, we prepared a stipulation agreement for her. This legal document simplified the process, ensuring her new arrangement was recognized without hassle. Sarah’s transition was seamless, saving her time, stress, and thousands in legal fees.

When to Update Your Divorce Agreement

Don’t wait for complications to arise. Here are specific situations where you might want to consider modifying your divorce agreement:

1. Changing Child Custody Arrangements

Child custody arrangements can change due to various reasons, such as one parent relocating or changes in the child’s needs. If you find yourself in a situation where a modification is necessary, it’s essential to act quickly. Courts prioritize the best interests of the child, so be prepared to demonstrate how the changes will benefit them.

2. Adjusting Child Support Payments

If your financial situation changes—whether due to job loss, a pay cut, or other significant financial changes—you might need to modify child support payments. Courts typically require evidence of the change in circumstances to consider a modification.

3. Modifying Spousal Support

Similar to child support, spousal support can also be modified if there’s a significant change in circumstances. For example, if one spouse loses their job or experiences a substantial pay increase, the spousal support terms might need to be reevaluated.

4. Addressing Property and Debt Disputes

Post-divorce, disputes over property and debts can arise. If you discover that certain assets were not divided correctly, or if new debts have emerged, it may be necessary to revisit the terms of your divorce agreement.

Do You Need an Attorney?

While you might think hiring an attorney is necessary for any modification, it’s not always the case. Depending on your situation, you might be able to navigate the process without legal representation. However, having an attorney can provide significant advantages, especially if there are complicated issues at play.

When to Hire an Attorney

  • If the other party contests the changes.
  • When dealing with complex financial situations.
  • If you’re unsure how to present your case to the court.
  • When the modification involves significant changes, like custody arrangements.

Steps to Modify Your Divorce Agreement

Here’s a general outline of the steps to modify your divorce agreement:

1. Identify the Need for Change

Clearly identify the reasons for the modification. Gather any evidence that supports your case, such as financial documents or communication records concerning changes in child needs.

2. Communicate with Your Ex-Partner

Before filing for modification, it might be beneficial to discuss the changes with your ex. If you can come to an agreement, it will make the process smoother.

3. File a Motion for Modification

To formally request a change, you’ll need to file a motion with the court. This document should specify the original terms you want to change and outline the reasons for the modification.

4. Attend the Court Hearing

After filing, a court hearing will be scheduled. Be prepared to present your case and provide evidence supporting your request for modification.

5. Await the Court’s Decision

The court will review your motion and determine whether the modification is warranted. If granted, the new terms will be legally recognized.

Conclusion

Modifying your divorce agreement can seem overwhelming, but it’s a necessary step when life changes occur. Remember, you’re not stuck with your original divorce terms. Whether it’s adjusting custody arrangements, updating support payments, or resolving property disputes, knowing how to navigate the modification process can make all the difference.

If you need help with modifying your divorce agreement, don’t hesitate to reach out. Legal assistance can save you time, stress, and money in the long run. Contact us for a free consultation and take the first step toward ensuring your post-divorce life is as smooth as possible!

Made with VideoToBlog using Can You Change Your Divorce Agreement? YES! Here’s How! 🔥 Los Angeles Divorce #shorts #divorce661

 

Long Term California Divorce : How To Terminate Spousal Support

Long Term California Divorce : How To Terminate Spousal Support

Hi, Tim Blankenship here at divorce661.com and this video is about when you’re trying to terminate spouse on a long term marriage. I’m going to try to make this brief but it can get quite complex.

You know long term is anything over 10 years. The rule of California is that the court will retain jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support indefinitely. So it means you guys can say no spouse support, 0 support order however, the court will maintain jurisdiction over that.

Meaning at any time during the future either one of you can go back to court and ask for spouse support if there’s a change in circumstance such as a child loss, etcetera. A lot of people don’t want to leave that door open even though policy is that the courts will maintain jurisdiction indefinitely.

A lot of our clients want to terminate jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support, even on long term marriages so they can close that door and never have that issue be revisited down the road. In doing so the parties have to agree to do that, both spouses have to agree.

In fact there’s a whole page waiver that says basically for no reason in the future, no matter what happens you’re waiving your right and the court no longer has jurisdiction, blah blah blah and you guys would both waive, both have to sign and initial that specific waiver language.

So when people call me and say Tim I tried to do my own divorce and my divorce is being rejected and they’re saying I can’t terminate spouse support and we have a long term marriage etcetera, what they’re trying to do is a default case. A default is where the other party, the respondent participate at all. So as, for court policy, the court has to reject your judgment.

They cannot go against California law and allow you to terminate support on long term marriages except by agreement. So we got, many people come to us say Tim, we’re having this problem. We tried to return our judgment, they’re rejecting it because they say we can’t waive it even though I marked terminate jurisdiction on the petition and that’s because they’re trying to do a true default versus a hybrid.

A hybrid is a case where, and what’s going on here is people are trying to save on court fees and it’s the same thing we do, but what you want to do is a hybrid which is a default with an agreement, as opposed to a true default. Both of those neither party has to, I’m sorry, the respondent doesn’t have to response, so the same court fee savings is there but people get confused between a default and default with agreements.

If you’re trying to terminate spouse, long term marriage and you guys sign the waiver language then you need to have the other party involved still don’t have to file a response, but then you can terminate support on a long term marriage.

If you have no choice but to do it by default and they’re option is going to be mark the reserved jurisdiction over the spouse support on your spouse support order for judgment. Tim Blankenship divorce661.com. Hope this was helpful.

If you want to schedule a call with me you can go to divorce661.com and you can do that through the blue button that says schedule a call with Tim, and if you need my assistance feel free to set that up and we hope to talk to you about helping you prepare or finish your divorce in California.

Thank you so much for watching and have a great day.

How To Modify Your Child Support & Spousal Support

How To Modify Your Child Support & Spousal Support

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com with today’s divorce661 tip of the day. So if you are going to modify child support or spouse support keep in mind that the court has the ability to make changes.

They retain jurisdiction over the issue of support, both child support and spousal support in most cases and that allows you if there is a change in circumstances to ask the court to make modifications to support.

For instance, if you have an increase or decrease in income wither you are the payer or the receiving spouse of support, you have 2 options. You can either petition the court to ask the court to modify support based on the change in circumstances.

In this case we’re talking about income, or, what I 1st tell my clients is if you guys are still on good terms to speak to your spouse. Let the other spouse know about the change in circumstances as far as income, let me run some numbers regarding child support and spouse support, and if you guys agree to those numbers all I have to do is draft a stipulation.

You can avoid court. It takes a couple days to draft this document. There’s no court involved. There’s a small filing fee of 20 dollars with the court. I draft a document, you guys sign it and you’re done. As opposed to going to court, filing a motion, having the other person served, going to the hearing and having the judge make the order.

I did a longer video about this called stipulate versus litigate, meaning come to an agreement as opposed to going to court. I hope you enjoyed today’s divorce661 tip of the day. Tim Blankenship, with divorce661.com. Have a great day.

No Spousal Support But Did You Terminate The Court’s Jurisdiction?

No Spousal Support But Did You Terminate The Court’s Jurisdiction?

Hi, Tim Blankenship here with divorce661.com and this video is about long term, when you’re trying to terminate spouse support on a long term marriage, so I’m going to try and make this brief because it can get quite complex.

In a long term marriage, anything over 10 years, the rule of California is that the court will retain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely, so it means you guys can say no spouse support, zero support order, however the courts will maintain jurisdiction over that, meaning at any time in the future either one of you could go back to court and ask for spouse support if there is a change in circumstances such as a job loss, etcetera.

A lot of people don’t want to leave that door open even though policy is that the courts will maintain jurisdiction indefinitely, a lot of our clients want to terminate jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support even on long term marriages so they can close that door and never have to have that issue of being revisited down the road.

In doing so the parties have to agree to do that, both spouses have to agree. In fact, there is a whole page waiver that says basically for no reason in the future, no matter what happens, you’re waiving your right, and the court no longer has jurisdiction, blah blah blah and you guys are both have to sign and initial that specific waiver language.

So, when people call me and say Tim I tried to do my own divorce and my divorce is being rejected and they’re saying that I can’t terminate spouse support and we had a long term marriage, etcetera, what they are trying to do is a default case. A default is where the other party, the respondent, doesn’t participate at all. So, for a court policy, the courts have to reject your judgment they cannot go against California law and allow you to terminate support on long term marriages except by agreement.

So, we’ve had many people come to us and say Tim, we’re having this problem, we tried to turn our judgment, they’re rejecting because they say we can’t waive it even though I marked terminate jurisdiction on the petition and that’s because they’re trying to do a true default versus a hybrid. A hybrid is a case where, and what’s going on here is people are trying to save on court fees and that’s the same thing we do but what you want to do is a hybrid, which is a default with an agreement as opposed to true default.

Both of those, neither party has to, I’m sorry the respondent doesn’t have to file a response so, you’re the same court fee savings is there but people get confused between a default and a default with agreement. So, if you’re trying to terminate spouse support on a long term marriage and you guys are signing a waiver language then you need to have the other party involved, still don’t have to file a response but then you can terminate support on a long term marriage.

If you’re going, if you have no choice but to do it by default then your only option is going to be mark the reserved jurisdiction over the issue of spouse support on your spouse support order for your judgment. Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, hope this was helpful. If you want to schedule a call with me you can go to divorce661.com and you can do that through the blue button that says schedule a call with Tim and if you need my assistance feel free to set that up and I’d be happy to talk to you about helping you.

Long Term California Marriage & 10 Year Rule For Spousal Support

The issues surrounding long term California marriages and the 10 year rule are many. While 10 years is generally considered the rule for what distinguished a long term marriage, there are plenty of other things to consider. For purposes of this article, we are just talking in terms of the general rule.

Long Term California Marriage & 10 Year Rule For Spousal Support

In this video, we’re talking about, how long is a long term marriage in California? Pretty straight forward. I shouldn’t say straightforward. If you’re looking for a numerical value, 10 years is the line in the sand between a short term marriage and a long term marriage.

10 Years Is The “General” Rule

Now, there’s all kinds of rules and the attorneys make it very complex. There’s lots of laws surrounding this, so that can be changed. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it is to the extent that once it is 10 years, it is considered a long term marriage unless there’s some other factors involved, but we’re not going to get into all that complexity, so 10 years.

The reason I bring this up is if you have a long term marriage, related to spousal support, there are some, I guess benefits you could say. If you are married longer than 10 years in regards to spousal support, technically the spousal support order or the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support is indefinite.

Indefinite Jurisdiction Not Lifetime Support

It doesn’t mean you get life support or support for life. That’s commonly misconstrued, but if it’s less than 10 years, the general rule is that half the length of the marriage is what the courts would generally rule for spousal support. That’s kind of the biggest difference and that’s why I wanted to talk about the 10 year rule with alimony.

You can simply Google this to learn more about this. Just simply put California divorce long term marriage. There’s plenty of resources and articles written by attorneys that explain the rules of spousal support in regards to the length of marriage.

I’m Tim Blankenship, divorce661.com, handling divorce cases throughout California. Give us a call if you need some assistance. 661 281 0266, or go to divorce661.com for more information. Thanks so much for watching.

child support, spousal support

Modify Support For California Divorce? Run A Dissomaster First | Divorce661

Modify Support For California Divorce? Run A Dissomaster First | Divorce661

I get a lot of calls where people want to modify child support or modify spousal support for their California divorce.

This is all fine and well, but the first thing you want to do is make sure it is going to end up in your favor.

What I have found is that people just assume that by filing a motion to modify child support or spousal support that they will receive more or less in support based upon their gut feeling. Maybe they found out their spouse is earning more now and assume they should get more in support.

There are several things you have to consider, and while I won’t get into everything, I will provide a few examples.

Let’s say you have been receiving support for a few years both in child support and spousal support. Let’s assume that you come to learn that your spouse is now earning more money and thus your rationale for requesting more support.

Now in many cases, this would be simple and the justification for the request for additional support is based on a change in circumstances, that being one of the parties is earning more income.

But some other factors you need to look at is how has your income changed. As it has been several years, has your income gone up as well? When you ask for more in child support, will you spouse take that opportunity to ask for more custody and thus also affect the amount of support you receive or pay?

These are just some of the additional things you need to look at in addition to just how much income each of you receive.

And as I stated in the video above, at least 50% of the time when we run the numbers we learn that support would go down (for those who wanted to raise it) and go up ( for those trying to lower it)

I am happy to spend a few minutes on the phone with you to go over your situation to see if it would make sense to file a motion to modify child support and / or spousal support.

Valencia Divorce & Terminating Spousal Support From Long Term Marriage? You Will Need This Waiver For Your Divorce Judgment

If you are going through a divorce in Valencia, California and have a long term marriage,(over 10 years) and want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support in your divorce case, you are going to have to have include the spousal support waiver language for marriages over 10 years in length. (more below video)

 

You see, In California divorce, the law states that the court’s will maintain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely in marriages of long duration which is considered over 10 years. This does not mean that there has to be a spousal support order, it just means the court has the ability to make an award for spousal support should one of the spouses ask for spousal support in the future.

But many spouses going through divorce in Valencia still want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction, even though this is not what the courts would normally do.

If you want to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support, and both spouses agree, you can include specific spousal support waiver language that has to be part of your divorce agreement in order for the court’s to terminate the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support.

If you plan on asking the court to terminate the jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support I recommend that both spouses have their signature notarized on the divorce judgment. While it is not normally necessary to have both signatures notarized (sometimes none, sometimes just one) we recommend it because we have seen the courts request a hearing to speak to the spouses to make sure they understand what they are agreeing to. The judges also started rejecting the divorce judgments in some cases and asked the spouses to have their signatures notarized.

If you are going through a divorce in Valencia or anywhere in California, we can help you with your divorce, including adding the necessary waiver language to have not only the spousal support set at zero but to terminate the court’s jurisdiction over the issues of spousal support forever so you don’t ever have to worry about either spouse coming back at a later time and asking for spousal support.

Valencia Divorce : Is Spousal Support Taxable?

If you are going through a Valencia Divorce you will want to learn about Spousal Support. This article is about Spousal Support and specifically if it is a taxable event for the person receiving the Spousal Support.

Valencia Divorce : Is Spousal Support Taxable?

I have not only spoken to tax advisors about Spousal Support, but also receive the information directly from the Franchise Tax Board which explains the how Spousal Support is treated.  You can obtain the information about Valencia Divorce : Is Spousal Support Taxable by clicking this link to the Franchise Tax Board on the sections specifically about divorce and spousal support.

If you have questions about your Valencia Divorce we can help.  Please call us for a free Valencia Divorce phone consultation.  We have been serving residents of Valencia, CA for years and handle over 30 Valencia Divorce cases per month.  Please give us a call at 661-281-0266.

We have been serving the Santa Clarita area and all of Los Angeles and California with our full service and affordable online self help tutorial options.

Alimony & Spousal Support : Santa Clarita Divorce : Divorce 661

Alimony & Spousal Support : Santa Clarita Divorce : Divorce 661

In this video we talk about alimony and spousal support (they mean the same thing) and some examples of how you can use spousal support during a divorce and other examples and types of spousal support from a tax perspective.  The short story is that the money for spousal support does not necessarily have to be actual cash payments to the spouse, but could also include paying for their rent, mortgage, medical bills, etc.

We explain more about other examples of Spousal Support in this short video.

Alimony & Spousal Support : Santa Clarita Divorce : Divorce 661

In this video we talk about alimony and spousal support (they mean the same thing) and some examples of how you can use spousal support during a divorce and other examples and types of spousal support from a tax perspective.  The short story is that the money for spousal support does not necessarily have to be actual cash payments to the spouse, but could also include paying for their rent, mortgage, medical bills, etc.

We explain more about other examples of Spousal Support in this short video.

Spousal Support Deductible If Court Ordered | Santa Clarita Divorce

Spousal Support Deductible If Court Ordered | Santa Clarita Divorce

In the previous video we talked about whether spousal support is a taxable event. This video talks about the rules that are in place regarding whether you can deduct spousal support. Of course, always refer to you CPA.

Spousal Support Deductible If Court Ordered | Santa Clarita Divorce

In the previous video we talked about whether spousal support is a taxable event. This video talks about the rules that are in place regarding whether you can deduct spousal support. Of course, always refer to you CPA.