How To Combine Divorce Cases By Stipulation | Los Angeles County Divorce

We’re talking about how to complete a stipulation when two petitions are filed in a divorce case.

I just did a video on what happens when two petitions are filed, and the answer was you have to treat one as the response.

Well, you have to complete a stipulation and file that with the courts, so that second petition is counted as the response.

So let me just back-up briefly, both of you filed a petition within days of each other, let’s say you have two open cases, you need to choose one as a lead case.

Generally speaking, you’re going to chase the first case that was opened, and you’re going to ask the court to use case B, the second case that was filed, as the, and treat that petition in that second case as the actual response to the first case, that way you have a single case in your situation.

So that said, what you need to do is draw up a stipulation and submit that to the court.

The stipulation, essentially, will say, we request the court, allow case A that was filed on this date to be the lead case and that case B that was filed on this date, this petition be treated as the response to case A.

Both of you will sign it, you’ll submit it to the court and wait for the judge to sign it, and therefore your second petition will be counted as a response.

Now the reason that’s been official, is because if you filed a petition, you pay the filing fee, both of you did.

If you file another response to a case that doesn’t have a response filed, you’re going to have to pay a filing fee again. That’s why you need to complete the stipulation, to have your second, your petition, to, not the lead case, you have the lead case, leave it alone.

Have your petition in the secondary case be treated as a response that way the filing fee and the petition you filed can be treated as a response.

If you have any questions about that, please feel free to give me a call, 661-281-0266.

You can always get more information from our website at divorce661.com.

We handle divorce cases in all of Los Angeles County.

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