Santa Clarita Divorce | How To File Ex-Parte Motion

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Divorce | How To File Ex-Parte Motion

Everytime I get a question from one of my clients or anyone that calls for that matter, I try to make it a habit to also answer that question on video.

Today I was asked what the process is for filing an Ex-Parte motion in court.    But let’s first talk about what Ex-Parte means.  Ex-Parte means “for oneself” and generally refers to going to court without the other party being present.  It also has other applications.

The Los Angeles County Bar Association prepared a tip called Preparing for and making and Ex Parte Application which you can read and stated that Ex Parte relief is requested when it is impractical or impossible to wait the minimum statutory period for  the court to hear a regular motion.

For Instance, lets say you want to go to court because you want an order for spousal support.  If you were to file a Request For Order with the court, you may be looking anywere from 30 to 60 days depending on which court you are in and how busy they are.

If you can’t wait 60 days, because for instance, you would have no other source of income and you are going to be evicted, that may qualify as an emergency.  So going into court Ex Parte may be necessary to get orders from the court sooner.

It is important that you still give the other party notice that you will going to court.  This is called giving ex parte notice.  Per the LACBA article, you have to give ex parte notice prior to 10:00 a.m. the day before you want to appear in court.  This way the other party has some advance notice so they can also make an appearance in court if they choose.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  Please give us a call if you would like more information about our affordable divorce services.

Completing Declaration Of Disclosure | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Completing Declaration Of Disclosure | Santa Clarita Divorce

The declaration of disclosure form FL-140 can be considered the cover page or face page to the financial disclosures.  You will use it as the to page to the the schedule of assets and debts and income and expense declaration when preparing your divorce paperwork.

When you prepare the declaration of disclosure there are 5 check boxes that you can check to indicate which forms you are completing and serving on the other party.

first thing you want to do is make sure to mark the correct box on the declaration of disclosure in regards to whether you are filing your preliminary or final declaration of disclosure.  In most cases you will be filing your preliminary declaration of disclosure.  If you are the Petitioner in your divorce, you would mark the “Petitioner” box and the “Preliminary” box to indicate to the court who you are and what you are filing.

Again, this page is used mostly as a cover sheet.  You can mark the box that says you are filing one of 5 different forms:

  1. A completed Schedule of Assets and Debts
  2. A completed income and expense declaration
  3. A statement of all material facts and information regarding valuation of all assets that are community property or in which the community has an interest
  4. A statement of all material facts and information regarding obligations for which the community is liable.
  5. An accurate and complete written disclosure of any investment opportunity, business opportunity, or other income-producing opportunity presented.

In most cases, as is pertains to your preliminary declaration of disclosure, checking box 1 and 2 is sufficient.  If it gets to the point where you need to file the final declaration of disclosure, you may need to check boxes 3,4 and 5 and provide the necessary forms.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service trying to demystify the divorce process and provide an affordable divorce solution.

 

How To Complete Schedule Of Assets And Debts Form FL-142 | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Complete Schedule Of Assets And Debts Form FL-142 | Santa Clarita Divorce

The schedule of assets and debts form FL-142 is one of the essential disclosure forms that makes us the declaration of disclosure during a divorce in California.

The schedule of assets and debts along with the income and expense declaration makes up what is known as your disclosures during the divorce process.

The schedule of assets and debts is a 4 page form that has you list all your assets and debts whether or not they are separate property or community property.  You will also have to assign a value to all your property.

When you are assigning value to your property, you do not list what you paid for that item, rather what it’s values is today if sold.  The courts say to think what you could get for that item at a garage sale or if you sold it on an online auction, etc.

When you list your assets and debts, you will need to supply a statement for everything that has an account number.  For instance:

  • Credit card statements
  • Bank statements
  • Mortgage Statements
  • Vehicle Registration
  • Life Insurance Policies
  • Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds
  • Again, anything with an account number

Essentially, you want to provide a written statement of everything you list on the schedule of assets and debt.

When listing your assets and debts it is not necessary to provide the entire account number for your checking accounts and credit card statements.  All you need to do is supply the last 4 digits of the account numbers so that they can be identified.

Please give us a call if you would like to discuss having our licensed and bonded legal document assistant firm prepare your divorce forms for you.  We are located in Santa Clarita and specialize in the divorce process.

Need To Complete Divorce Income And Expense | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Need To Complete Divorce Income And Expense | Santa Clarita Divorce

When you file for divorce, there are specific steps you need to take to complete the divorce process.  What we are discussing here is about the requirements for you to complete your financial disclosures.  Specifically, we will we adressing how to complete the divorce income and expense Form FL-150.

The income and expense declaration is one of the forms that comprises the what is known as the declaration of disclosure.  The other form we will discuss in another post and video is how to complete the divorce schedule of assets and debts.

The process of disclosure is very important in the divorce process.  The courts want both parties to disclose all their financial information.  In addition, these document will be used to assist you when dividing up your property and debts at the time you prepare your judgment.

The income and expense declaration will ask you to disclose certain financial information such as:

  1. The name of your employer
  2. Whether you are currenty employed or not
  3. How much you make
  4. How much the other party makes
  5. How much education you have
  6. Last year no filed taxes
  7. Estimation of all your debts
  8. Net of your assets and debts

When you are completing the income and expense declaration, make sure you place your source of income in the correct area.  The income and expense declaration asks you to specify the source of your income.  Make sure to also separate out your overtime from your regular pay.  Be especialy mindfull not to place your self employment income in the salary income.  There is a separate line item for that.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document assistant company that help self represented clients professionally prepare their divorce.  For more information on our affordable divorce service, please give us a call.

How To Prepare Summary Divorce | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Prepare Summary Divorce | Santa Clarita

The summary divorce process is a bit different than going through a regular divorce.  There are a lot of similarities but overall it is an easier and quicker process.  Of course, there are qualifying factors in order to file a summary divorce.

So what does it take to qualify for a summary divorce?  Let’s cover a few of the qualifying factors.  Make sure to watch the video for a complete run down of the summary divorce qualifications.

First, you have to have been married for less than 5 years.  Remeber, that to determine the length of marriage, you would use the date of marriage through the date of separation.  Then next factor is that you cannot have any children from the marriage.  You also can not own any property.

Furthermore, you can only have a certain amount of debts to qualify for the summary divorce.  The courts say you cannot have more than $6,000 in debt acquired since the date you got married.  This does not include car loans.  So everything but car loans would need to be factored into your overall debt.

You can also not have more than $36,000 in assets acquired during the duration of the marriage.  This is referred to as community property.  Again you would not include the value of your vehicles for this calculation.

To get help to determine if you qualify for the summary divorce you can use the fillable divorce worksheet to figure out how much you have in assets and debts.

For more information about the summary divorce process, please give us a call.  We can help you figure out if you qualify.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm and can help you professionally prepare your divorce paperwork.

Have A Question About Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce FAQ’s

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Have A Question About Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce FAQ’s

Have a question about divorce and don’t know where to find the answers you are looking for?  Well, look no further as our divorce legal resources page is your answer to all the most  frequently asked questions about divorce.

Trust us when we say this is not one of those times to ask your friend or neighbor.  Instead, we suggest you go right to the source for answers to your divorce questions.  This source is the California court systems website where they provide answers to the most frequently asked questions.

And they are not skimpy on answering questions.  There are hundreds of questions they have answered such as:

  1. What if my spouse does not want to give me  divorce?
  2. What is a no fault divorce?
  3.  Is there anything else I should do after I get divorced.
  4.  Do I need a lawyer if I have property?
  5.  What is the fair market value of our property?

This what just a snippet of what is covered on the courts divorce frequently asked questions page.  We will be preparing a separate video on each of the frequently asked questions as asked and answered by the court.  The reasons we are going to do this is, again, because it is hard to loacate this information even if you specifically search for it on the internet.

Because we are not a law firm, we cannot technically provide you with information about divorce strategies or give legal advice.  But we can point you in the right direction and help you locate the same information you would have received during a divorce consultation with an attorney.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  Please give us a call if you would like to learn more about having your divorce prepared by us.

Santa Clarita Free Divorce Forms

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Santa Clarita Free Divorce Forms

There are lots of divorce companies that will sell you divorce forms.  In fact companies make millions of dollars selling divorce forms which are completely free.  Ah, the power of the mighty marketing dollar.

We are trying to get the word out that the divorce forms are all available online at no cost to you.   We are doing this by making this video which is part of our entire divorce self help series which will explain how to access the free divorce forms and how to use them.

Santa Clarita Free Divorce Forms

In this video we show you where you can find the divorce forms and how to properly save them.  One of the most frustrating things about the online divorce forms is how to save them once you have completed them.

You see the free divorce forms are completely fillable online which means you can type right onto  them.  But there is a certain way you have to save them in order to keep the fillable information inside the boxes.  I don’t want to bore you with this process, but you will save a lot of time if you just read the next few sentences because it will save you from having to duplicate your efforts when filling out the free online divorce forms.

Normally when we save a document we will do a file – save as, right?  You can do this, and by all appearance it will seem as though you saved the form.  And you did, just that it will not save the parts you filled in.  What you have to do is use the “save this form” yellow button at the botton of the form, then save-as and you will be good to go.

The other thing to watch out for when using the free online divorce forms is that if you open another form before saving the form you were working on, you will lose all the information because the form will open in the same tab and completely replace what you were working on.

We are licensed and bonded legal documents assistants providing affordable divorce services.  Give us a call to discuss having us prepare your divorce paperwork professionally for you.

Santa Clarita Divorce Self Help Videos

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Santa Clarita Divorce Self Help Videos

We are proud to bring an entire lineup of divorce self help videos to Santa Clarita and all of Los Angeles County.

Our divorce self help videos are a first in the legal self help industry.  To date, we have been the only legal document preparation service to prepare a complete series on how to complete the divorce process totally on video.

We cover every document and every divorce form there is to prepare your divorce yourself.  We chose to deliver this method of instruction as it would be near impossible to do it soley in print.

Additionally, there is plenty of divorce information on the internet these days, but most is hard to understand or not in an instructional format.

In our self help divorce videos we go into detail on each of the forms and discuss the divorce process.  We are not providing you with our way of doing things, rather we reference the California divorce website and use the divorce process as discussed on their family law website.

We will show you the divorce process as outlined by the California court systems them show you the forms on video and show you how to prepare the divorce forms individually.

Now while we are providing a free legal service, it is not without some benefit to us.  We do hope that you find the videos informative and valuable.  However, admitedly we are hoping to provide this divorce information and that some folks will seek our our divorce service to help them prepare their divorce paperwork and get through the divorce process.

We are licesned and bonded legal document assistants who specialize in the divorce process.  If you would like assistance in preparing your divorce, we are a great affordable attorney alternative.  Give us a call if you would like to learn more about our divorce assistance service in Santa Clarita.

How To Prepare Santa Clarita Divorce Response Form FL-120

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How To Prepare Santa Clarita Divorce Response Form FL-120

Are you attempting to get through the  divorce process on your own?  Just so you know, you are not alone.  As much as 80% of those going through divorce do so without an attorney.

But where do you turn to for assistance when you need help?  We found that for those going through the divorce process alone the information is hard to come by even though there is lots of information about divorce all over the Internet.

In this video we cover how to complete the divorce form FL-120.  The divorce form FL-120 is the form you would use to reply to a petition for divorce.

To assist those going through the divorce process, we have prepared numerous videos on how to prepare the individual divorce forms.  We go line by line over the divorce form FL-120 and show you exactly how to fill it out if you were to file a response to your divorce action.

In this video we go over:

  1. Divorce residence requirements
  2. Completing your date of marriage
  3. Completing your date of separation
  4. Filling out the separate property section
  5. Filling out the community property section
  6. Requests for Legal Custody
  7. Requests for child visitation
  8. How to restore your former name

All of this and more are on the divorce response Form FL-120.  While the majority of the FL-120 are check boxes, you will want to know the significance of checking the various boxes on the divorce response form.

In addition there are several additional forms that can be attached to the divorce response form, especially if you have children.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.   If you would like to have your divorce forms professionally prepared by us please give us a call to discuss your specific situation so we can advise you on  how the process will work.

How To Complete Divorce Summons | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How To Complete Divorce Summons | Santa Clarita

Nobody wants to go through a divorce.  But if you have to, don’t you want to save money?  I hate rhetorical questions too, but wanted to make sure that folks are aware that there are affordable divorce services other than hiring an attorney.

For those that decide to represent themselves in their divorce, usually it is do to one of 2 things. Either they don’t what to spend the money or they feel their divorce case is simple enough to do on their own.

Either way, if you plan on representing yourself during your divorce, look to the services of an affordable divorce paralegal service such as ours.

We have prepare numerous videos on how to represent yourself in court which goes step by step into the process of completing your divorce forms.  Make sure to check our our divorce video link at the top of this website to see all the “how to” divorce videos that we have created.

The divorce summons form is not very complicated to fill out.  Actually there are only a few lines that you have to complete.  The summons has a lot of language pre-printed on it that relates to the divorce process in general and about specific automatic restraining orders that go into effect once the divorce summons is filed.

In this video we go over the language in the divorce summons that spells out to the Respondent what their obligations are if they want to respond and that they have 30 days to do so, otherwise risk taking a chance that the divorce proceeds without their input.

Additionally, the divorce summons outlines what you can an can’t do and discusses what you are restrained from doing until the divorce process has concluded.  In the video we point out the importance of reading and understanding the restraining order language.    Make sure to watch the how to prepare the divorce petition video as well.

If you are looking for an affordable way to get divorced, please give us a call to learn more about our divorce legal document preparation service.