Our California Divorce Services

The residency requirement for California divorce provides that at least one of the spouses has to have been a resident of the state of California for at least six months before filing the divorce petition. You must also live in the county where you file the divorce petition for at least three months before filing. If neither spouse meets the six month residency requirement for California divorce, they can file a legal separation and then amend the Petiton at a later time once they have met the residency requirements.

In order for our office to provide the lowest cost of services to our clients, we have made every effort to streamline the legal process into several easy, defined steps to help you complete your  proceedings in the most efficient way. Here is what you should expect when using A People’s Choice for your divorce, legal separation or annulment.

Online Interview Process: Once you have retained our office (signed required contract and processed your payment for our fees) we will need to gather statistical facts about your case. To do this in the most time and cost efficient way we have created an online interactive interview process which captures all the information we will need to prepare your paperwork. The link to the interview will be emailed to you. The online interview normally takes between 10-25 minutes depending on the complexity of your particular case.

Petitioner’s Dissolution Documents: Our office prepares all the standard documents required to be filed with the court in your proceeding. To streamline the signing of the standard documentation, our office prepares most on the front end. Once you have completed the interview process, our office will send you (the Petitioner) all the documents you will need to sign to start your divorce case. In addition, we will include some other documents that we will need later down the road. You will see that some documents will be dated and others will not. We will send you a detailed email with the documents with instructions on what you need to do next.

Filing of your Case: Once you have signed your documents and returned the originals to us with the court filing fee check, we will then send them to the court for processing. The time it takes for the court will vary based on your choice on how you wish us to process your paperwork. We will send you the filing options when we send you your divorce paperwork to sign. Some options are faster than others, some are cheaper than others, so please review the filing options and decide what best fits your needs and budget.

Petitioner and Respondent Packages: Once you reach step this step, you will have an active divorce case. Upon receiving your filed paperwork from the court which will give you  CASE NUMBER, we will generate two separate packages for you with detailed instructions on the next steps to proceed. We typically send these package by email in pdf format. You will need to print them off on your end. In these packets, you will find your FILED Petition which will need to be given to the Respondent.

Marital Settlement Agreement: If you paid for our office to prepare a Marital Settlement agreement, you will find a draft copy of your marital settlement agreement in your package attached to Step 3. This document addresses all the issues required by the court. Our office includes one FREE revision of the Marital Settlement Agreement. Supplemental revisions after the first revision will incur added charges.

Return of Signed Documents: Once you and your spouse have completed all aspects of the steps included in each of your packages, you can now return all the signed documents to our office. Once this has been done, we will be able to send your final judgment to the court for filing. We cannot send the Final Judgment documents to the court for processing until at least 31 days after the date your spouse has been served or signed the voluntary acknowledgment.

Submission of Final Judgment: At the proper time, if you have provided everything requested, we will send the Final Judgment to the court for processing. The amount of time the court takes to process the Final Judgment varies but on average it is about 3-8 weeks. Once the Judgment has been signed, your case is considered concluded. Our office will give you a copy of your filed judgment if the court returns it to our office. Sometimes depending on the county in which you filed, the court will mail the judgment directly to you. In divorce proceedings, pay particular attention to the Date of Termination of Marriage as often our cases are concluded BEFORE THAT DATE HAS PASSED. Once that date passes, you are considered single and free to remarry. You will NOT get any more paperwork from the court.

If you and your spouse cannot agree, you may be able to use mediation to resolve your divorce disputes. Mediation allows each party to discuss concerns and specific issues that need to be resolved. If divorce issues can be settled through mediation, then the divorce case can proceed as an uncontested matter and most likely neither party will need to appear in court. Sometimes, if there has been a substantial delay since the case was filed, you may have to attend a status hearing to provide a judge with an update what is going on in the case. Contact us if you have questions about how to settle your case without going to court.

California law requires financial disclosure in divorce. This means that both parties are mandated by law to exchange financial information which includes a statement of assets and debts and community and separate property. There are two disclosures that are required under California law, the preliminary disclosure and the final disclosure. When the parties sign a marital settlement agreement, the preliminary disclosures between the parties cannot be waived under any circumstances.  If there is no marital settlement agreement and the matter is proceeding as a default case, the Petitioner will have to complete the mandatory preliminary disclosure but can waive Respondent’s preliminary disclosure. Failure to properly complete the preliminary disclosure process could result in a final Judgment being later set aside. The final disclosure can be mutually waived by both parties.

If you and your spouse agree to all the issues, you do not need to hire an attorney to file an uncontested divorce. Most people can navigate through the family law system on their own accord with the help of A People’s Choice for the paperwork. On the other hand, if the matter becomes contested, you may want to give thoughtful consideration to determining your exact needs before rushing out and hiring a lawyer.  For example, some contested matters such as custody and visitation, can be easily handled without the need of an attorney. Often these matters proceed through mediation from which process the attorneys are excluded. In the end, the mediator offers their recommendation. In most cases, the Judge hearing the matter simply places his/her stamp of approval on the mediator’s recommendation.

Nowadays, people can hire an attorney under a limited scope of representation agreement. This means that you get more bang for your dollar by being able to use a non-attorney such as A People’s Choice for necessary document preparation and an attorney for any complex court hearings. Contact our office to discuss your needs. We can explain how other clients have handled similar situations using our services so you can make the best choice for yourself.

The faithfulness of a spouse generally has no bearing on child or spousal support. California family law requires both parents to pay child support. However, one parent may be required to pay more support than the other if he/she earns more money and spends less time with the child.