Do it Yourself Divorce and Child Support/Custody

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Starting your divorce case

Beginning a divorce case is a big step. It is emotional, stressful, and can be extremely expensive. Below are some steps to do this on your own. It will require a little bit of learning, but you will save yourself thousands of dollar. If you are stuck along the way there is help to assist you. If you feel you can’t do it and need someone to fill out the forms for you click here.

Below are the steps in a very easy to understand format. These steps are for someone filing for divorce. 

Let’s Begin….

  1. To start a divorce or legal separation, you begin by filling out two court forms: a Petition and a Summons.
  1. Before you start, there are a few terms you may want to be familiar with. You will need to fill out a few forms, and being familiar with these terms will help you.
  1. You first must determine if you are eligible to file for divorce in California. There is a residency requirement: either you or your spouse must have lived in California for the past 6 months and in your current California county for the past 3 months. You may file for divorce in any county. To file for a legal separation, one of you must live in California. (for any length of time)
  2. Begin filling out these forms:
  • Petition — Marriage/Domestic Partnership (form FL-100) 

This form asks for basic information about your marriage and the type of orders you want the court to be able to make about things like spousal support and property. 

The Summons tells your spouse that you’ve started a court case and that they have 30 days to respond.

Once you file the Summons and Petition, there are things you can’t do without written agreement from your spouse or a court order. They’re called Standard Family Law Restraining Orders. Page 2 of the summons lists these. Some of these things include:

  • Give away or hide money and property  
  • Change insurance beneficiaries   
  • Take your children (if you have them together) out of state or get them a new passport

 

Pay the filing fee: There’s a filing fee for each county to file for a divorce. It is on average $400. If you can’t afford the fee, you can ask for a fee waiver.

  1. Next you must file these forms with the court. You may file in person by going to the family court in your county with 2 copies of the forms and the fee, or you may efile. Efiling instructions are available on each county’s website. The following link will show you what court to file in:  https://www.courts.ca.gov/find-my-court.htm. It will also give directions to the court and efiling options. The clerk will stamp the copies and keep the original. You will serve the other party with one of the stamped copies.
  2. Next you will serve the stamped copy on your spouse. This means that you will have the summons delivered to your spouse. You may not deliver the papers yourself. Here is a quick video on what it means to serve papers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6CaPdu8ZQk&list=PLep1WslZsTbdlznN0kENfPkOyZ7dRYE0j&index=4&t=1s

Here are some rules regarding serving the forms and any complicated situations:

https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/divorce/start-divorce/serve.  

  1. Have your server complete the Proof of Service form: Proof of Service of Summons (form FL-115).  Your server will then fill in the information about how, when, and where they served the papers. Your server must sign the form.
  1. Copy and file the proof of service form. You will file the original and the copy with the same clerk at the same clerk’s office where you filed the summons and other documents. The court will stamp and return the copy. Keep all copies for your records. 
  1.  If your spouse doesn’t file a response within 30 days of being served, you can ask the court for default. This means asking the court to decide the case without your spouse’s input. Here is some information on asking the court for a default, if your spouse doesn’t file a response in 30 days:

https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/divorce/start-divorce/no-response-from-spouse

  1.  Your spouse now has 30 days to respond. During this time, you need to gather your financial information. Sharing information about your finances with your spouse (or domestic partner) is a requirement for getting a divorce or legal separation. This is called disclosure or financial disclosure. 

You will need:  

  1. Tax returns from last 2 years 
  1. Proof of income (like pay stubs) for the past 2 months 
  1. Any documents that show what you own and what you owe 
  2. Mortgage statements
  3. Bank account statements 
  4. The title to your house or car 
  5. Credit card statements 
  6. Retirement account statements (pension, 401k, IRA)

  1.  Information on dividing property and debts:

Click this link below to find out more information about how property and debts are divided:

https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/divorce/property-debts

Make copies of everything. You’ll need to attach the copies to your forms. 

  1.  Once you’ve gathered all of your financial documents, you’ll fill out three forms: 
  1. Declaration of Disclosure (form FL-140)
    This form is a cover sheet for what you’ll share with your spouse. You must sign it. 
  1. Income and Expense Declaration (form FL-150) 
    This form asks about how much money you earn and how you spend your money. You need to attach proof of your income from the past two months to the form. 
  2. Schedule of Assets and Debts (form FL-142) (or Property Declaration (form Fl-160)
    This tells your spouse about what you own and owe. Attach copies of the documents you gathered. To fill this form out, you need to know the difference between community property and separate property.

Spousal Support, or Alimony 

Temporary spousal support is court-ordered monthly payment from one spouse to the other while a family law case is on-going. Permanent spousal support is court-ordered payments also, but they are permanent, and usually are issued with the final judgment at the end of the case. If you cannot wait until the end of the case, and need financial support now from your spouse, you will want to ask for temporary support. A spouse can ask for temporary support as soon as a family law case starts.  If the spouses can’t agree on a monthly support figure, a judge must decide, and looks at the expenses and incomes of each party.

You and your spouse can always agree to a different amount that makes sense for your situation. 

How to get or change temporary support: There are 2 ways to get or change temporary spousal support: 

  • You and your spouse have a written agreement:

You can use Spousal, Partner, or Family Support Order Attachment (form FL-343) to write out the details of your agreement. You will need a cover sheet that says the attachment is your agreement. You will both need to sign the cover sheet and have space for the judge to sign. You can use a Sample cover sheet agreement.

  • If you and your spouse do not have a written agreement, then you can ask the judge to order support. You will fill out the Request for Order form

Request for Order (form FL-300). For spousal support, use item 4 on page 3, and “Facts to Support” (item 10 on page 4). 

  •  Getting Information and trying to reach agreements: 
  • You will need to try to reach an agreement regarding many issues. Here is some information on how to try to reach an agreement with your spouse.

https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/divorce/make-decisions/propose-negotiate-agreements

  • If you are not able to reach an agreement, or get information you need, you can ask the judge for a Request for Order (form FL-300), where you will ask the judge for a court date to hear your case and make a decision. 
  • Either side can ask the judge to make a temporary decision (issue an order) while your case is ongoing.
  • You use this same form and process if you want to change an order a judge already made, even if your case is already final (there’s a judgment).
  • If you and the other side in your case agree, you can ask the judge to make your agreement a court order. You won’t need a court date.

Once you reach an agreement, the following forms will need to be attached to your agreement on various issues:

  • Spousal, Partner, or Family Support Order Attachment (form FL-343)

States what you and your spouse agreed to for long-term spousal support. You can attach Spousal or Domestic Partner Support Factors Under Family Code Section 4320-Attachment (form FL-349) to Form FL-343. 

States what you and your spouse agreed to for your property.

18) Getting more information for your case:

If you think you need more information from your spouse, you may ask for it in the form of Interrogatories. The easiest way to get basic information is with Form Interrogatories, which are a set of questions for the other party, and possibly asking for information or documents. For common questions, you can use a form (a form interrogatory) and check the boxes next to the questions you want the other person to answer.

You would use this form: Form Interrogatories – Family Law (form FL-145)

This form asks for basic information about the other person’s finances and property. You check boxes on it to ask for things like who lives with them, if they gave away any property, or their health history that might impact their ability to work.

Once you serve the completed Form Interrogatories – Family Law, the other person has 30 days to respond.

19) Other forms of discovery: (ways to get more information)

Besides the Form Interrogatories, you can use other types of requests to conduct discovery and get information. The type you use will depend on what information you need.

  • Special Interrogatories: Ask the other person to answer written questions under oath. These are not from a checklist like the Form Interrogatories. The answers can be used at trial.
  • Request for Production: Ask the other person to provide a document
  • Subpoena: 

This is a court order that requires the other side or someone else to testify or provide something, like a document.

  • Notice of deposition: Require someone to answer questions under oath (not in a courtroom)

Formal requests asking your spouse for information, answers to questions, or documents must be completed no later than 30 days before the first date set for trial.

Because each of these discovery types take at least 30 days to complete (35 if served by mail), this means that the last date to personally serve a written discovery request to the other person is 60 days before the first date set for trial, or 65 days if it is served by mail. If the trial date is moved (continued), the cutoff date for discovery does not move unless ordered by the judge.

  • Finalizing your divorce:

This depends on different scenarios, which are outlined below with a sequence of steps for each:

https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/divorce/finalize-divorce/questions

Divorce is not easy and is very emotional. If your case is simple, you may follow these steps to do it yourself and save large amounts of money. These steps are designed to guide you through all the scenarios. As you can see, it can be confusing and complicated. If it is too stressful and emotional, you can hire an attorney or a paralegal/LDA to do the steps and navigate through the forms. An attorney charges a retainer of at least $5000 and about $400 an hour for their work. A paralegal or LDA is about one quarter of that cost.