Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Finalizing Divorce

If you intend to proceed by way of default, you will have to make a court appearance.

Also, there are several forms which must be filed with the court and you will also need to have a judgment properly drafted for the court to sign.

If there is a facilitator's office in your court then please make use of the facility. Otherwise, you could retain a competent family law attorney to assist you.

Please be aware, just because the matter is proceeding by way of default, that does not mean that you do not need to disclose all community assets or that the court will allow an unfair distribution of the community estate. Also, if the distribution is inequitable, and if your wife comes back within a six-month time frame, she will probably be able to set the default and default judgment aside - depending on the circumstances. Indeed the failure to fully disclose community assets is, in and of itself, sufficient justification for the court to set aside the judgment in its entirety or any part thereof.

Regards, Damian Nolan.

Re: Finalizing Divorce

There are several forms that need to be filed. If your local court has a facilitators office they will assist you in filling out the forms and making sure that you have all of the correct forms. If you have no facilitators office, call several attorneys to get quotes concerning how much they would charge to complete the dissolution. Good Luck, Pat McCrary