We just learned that Van Nuys divorce motions are taking 90 days to get a hearing. This means from the time you file a Request For Order (RFO) it will be at least 90 days until you will see the judge.
(By the way, we can help you prepare a motion (request for order) if you are looking to file a motion or respond to one.)
This is bad news for those who are filing a motion with the court to modify child support or spousal support or need any type of orders for that matter.
We had previously written in the past on this topic where we reported that divorce motions were taking up to 60 days, which at the time was up from 45 days.
It appears the the service we can expect from the Los Angeles Divorce Courts are getting worse. This is, by far, the longest time frames we have seen recently. I spoke to our attorney service who files all our court documents everyday and they said that the Van Nuys divorce court is by far the worst when it comes to getting a hearing.
I don’t know if it is because it is October and the court has a lot of day of coming up that the court will be closed due to holidays and Judges out due to vacation or not, but we could only hope. Because if this is a consistent issue, we will not likely see any improvements.
You have to keep this in mind when you are going to file a motion. If you need an order right away, you are going to want to file a motion as soon as possible. Today is September 30, 2013 and I was told by Van Nuys Court that they are already scheduling motions and hearing into January.
Let me give you a little reality on what this means. Lets say you need to file a motion for child support or spousal support. You are filing because your spouse won’t agree out of court to pay any support.
Obviously there is a need for support and you need money. So you file your motion and you have to wait 90 days. This is 90 days until the hearing only. It is not like you are going to get a check from you spouse at the hearing!
Sometimes, after the hearing, the person who filed the motion will be asked to prepare an order after hearing that both parties would have to sign. This process can add at least another month. Once you get that signed, you need to submit it to the court for the judge to sign. Yes, you got it! Another month indeed.
So now you are looking at almost 5 months before your request for spousal support or any order you request to take effect.
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