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Hi, everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group, where we bring you family law matters each week.
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Hi, Bonnie. Hi, Michael. And once again, just to remind everybody, Michael is Michael Mantel with two L’s, Bonnie is Bonnie Mantel with one L. We are not related, just God put us together for all of you and all of us.
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And here we are. Bonnie, the first thing someone decides after I’ve had it, I want a divorce, I want out of this, they need to sign some papers and get court papers ready and documents and all that, right? One of the first sets of papers that people have to get in order if they’re gonna proceed with a formal legal divorce. Well, your first best bet is to hire an attorney because we know how to do it right.
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But if you’re gonna try to do this on your own until you realize you need an attorney probably to help you the rest of the way, you’re gonna need to file a petition and a summons. And if you have children, you’re gonna need to file a declaration under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. That’s one form, one form.
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And then- You just said three forms though, I think. Right, petition, summons. If you have children, it’s that declaration under the UCCJEA.
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And if you have property, you need a property declaration for whatever you think is community, as well as a property declaration for whatever you think is separate. And you know what? If you can go to the court and the family law facilitator will sell you this package and will help you fill it out. And then you have to serve it on your spouse along with the blank forms response and all these other forms.
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This sounds complicated. Do people do it on their own? They actually try to do it on their own and sometimes it can be confusing because when you read all the boxes, like every multiple choice, two out of the three sound like the right answer. It’s not necessarily the right answer.
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So yes, you can fill out your petition and summons and declaration on your own if you need to. And you can go to the facilitator’s office and get the package and then they will fill it out for you. If you want the help of an attorney, we’re more than happy to help you.
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It does not take us as long as it will take you. And so it might actually be better. Now, what is the downside, the cost, if you will, of saying, I’m gonna save some money.
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I’m gonna fill this out myself. I’m gonna get some help there. And you blow it and you don’t fill it out correctly.
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You don’t get all the boxes checked. What happens to you then? Well, you do have to pay a $435 fee to file a petition in court. It’s just the court filing fee.
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And you’re not gonna lose that money, but if you have to keep doing it, I’m assuming those people out there probably have jobs and they have to take off from work to go because they only can go during business hours and they have to wait in line and they have to do that. The cost in a regular attorney’s office shouldn’t be more than an hour, an hour and a half to complete all the documents for a petition package. And then the cost is still the same $435.
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The only difference is we would probably have a runner do it so maybe another 60 instead of spending hours and hours in our hourly rate. It’s not as expensive as it seems. That was to me like having an attorney do it ultimately will probably be less expensive and so probably a bit more protective as well.
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I don’t think, I haven’t heard of a check GPT being able to fill out these forms yet. Not yet, thank God, and since you’re signing a lot of this documentation under penalty of perjury, you wanna make sure you’re doing it right because if you leave stuff out, that could affect how the rest of the case gets done. Yeah, the cost could be enormous if you don’t have a professional do it.
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Like I say, if you think a professional is expensive, what do you see how expensive an amateur can wind up being? Bonnie, thank you for a very informative, wonderfully helpful Family Law Matters. If people wanna be in touch with you to talk more about how to start these forms, how can they do that? They can reach me directly at 619-574-8000 or they can reach us online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com.