Legal Question in Family Law in California
a friend of mine was served on feb. 4, of this year by her husband with a petition for dissolution of marriage, along with the other paperwork involved and needed to answer it by march 5. on feb.14 she had faxed the paperwork to the court which is in n. cal. she's in orange co. the court there denied them saying they could not be faxed except through some bizzare fashion that only perplexed her. she called legal aid and was told they had no idea of what they were talking about. so she FINALLY mailed them at the post office on friday march 4, but the court did not receive them until monday march 7, ...two days too late and of course Mr. cordial who until that time had no use too even call and say hello for 5 years until he was phone harrasing her throughout january with platitudes of his finding GOD and wanting to make right all the money he took her for, was on the steps of the court and requested them to enter default...go figure.now she seems to think she's got till august 5, to mail some other instrument of this proceedure. so she's now frantic and i'm just trying to help out! of course it's a lesson in retaining legal counsel, but is there anything she can do at this point to dismiss the default finding and extend her time to file her side? I'm assuming there is no august 5 deadline because i'm also assuming there is no case at this point, though i really have no idea. thank you.
4 Answers from Attorneys
As you wisely surmised, this whole situation could have been averted had there been an attorney assisting your friend. The best thing for her to do at this point is for your friend to contact an attorney in the county where the divorce action is and have the attorney sort out the best legal solution after reviewing the related pleadings.
I agree with Ms. Kock. Your friend needs to get an attorney, immediately.
I can see why legal aid and everyone else is so confused if your friend can't explain things any better than you have. I can tell you, however, that a default does not end a case. There is a case, and there probably is a hearing on August 5. Most likely, given the timing, it is a hearing to obtain the final divorce judgment. Your friend, being in default, has no right to appear in that proceeding and her ex-to-be will get everything his way. The only hope your friend has is to hire an attorney immediately who will go in to the court where the case is filed, and make an emergency motion to set aside the default and continue the hearing to a later date.
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