California Divorce and Family Law

Divorce court typo hits paycheck

Anyone who hasn't seen a copy of their credit report could take some advice from Eddie Taylor of Murfreesboro: Look at it.

Taylor discovered last year his own credit report wasn't what he thought it was after he learned that due to a typographical error, his paycheck was being garnished to pay child support to a Memphis woman he had never met.

"It's been a long, drawn-out process," both to clear the error from state records and to repair his credit rating, since he learned about the error in the middle of last year, he said. An error involving the mistyping of his middle initial in the office of a Memphis divorce court led to the trouble, he said.

State and local officials later admitted the mistake, but he was told he would have to contact the four major credit rating agencies on his own to remove the mistake from his record. Just last week, the Tennessee Department of Human Services sent a fax to the consumer reporting agencies notifying them of the error, but that was after he had gone through mountains of paperwork and spent two of his annual vacation days in Memphis to that very end.

"I had to do most of the work on my own to get this released," he said. "It was a long, drawn-out process to get this released from a typographical error that started 200 miles away from here. Why should I be out of time and money when they caused the problem?" Taylor wonders.

He believes he could have gotten the matter resolved much earlier if he had seen a copy of his credit report. "It's something that ought to be sent out once a year to everyone in the United States," he said. "You shouldn't have to beg for it or pay for it. That's our name and Social Security number and our credit report."

Read the entire article at The Daily News Journal.

DIY divorces hit snags in California--Paperwork and court procedures leave many less than legally single

When Yanic Chan and Vanessa Van split up in 1995, they could not afford a lawyer. So, like thousands of other people without money, they filled out the divorce paperwork themselves, with help from a friend and courthouse staff.

In November 1997, Van went to the Riverside County Courthouse to enter a final judgment. "The clerk put the stamp on it," Van said. "I asked, 'Everything finished?' She said 'Yes.' "

Chan returned to his native Cambodia, fell in love and married again. Then, in 2006, he tried to bring his new wife to this country. That's when Van and Chan got a nasty surprise, one that court officials fear could be awaiting thousands of other former California couples: Their divorce had not gone through.

Driven by rising legal fees, a shortage of legal-aid lawyers and a do-it-yourself philosophy, about 80 percent of people in California handle their own divorces.

Accidental bigamy

Many of them are not quite as divorced as they think they are. Some, like Chan, are even accidental bigamists. Tens of thousands of others have some understanding that their divorces are not done. But stumped by complex paperwork and court procedures and unable to afford thousands of dollars for attorneys, they simply let their cases languish. Court officials suspect the problem is vast.

In Los Angeles County, perhaps more than one-third of all divorce petitions filed have not been finalized, according to Kathleen Dixon, who heads the Los Angeles County Superior Court's programs for self-represented people. Officials don't have statistics because they don't monitor cases to make sure they are finished.

One Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, Mark Juhas, found that about one-third of the roughly 3,600 divorce cases filed in 2001 and 2002 and assigned to his courtroom remained open. Some of those couples may have reconciled, but Juhas suspects that many more are stuck or may even think they are divorced when they are not.

At one legal services center in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles, officials say they see 20 people a month who wrongly thought they were divorced. "They come in screaming," said Norma Valencia, a paralegal at the center operated by Neighborhood Legal Services. "They say, 'You don't understand my situation. I want a divorce right now.' "

In California, getting divorced takes at least three steps: filing divorce papers, serving them upon the spouse, and then writing and processing a judgment with the court. The process can be more complicated if there are children, or fights over assets. A divorce cannot become final until at least six months after the papers are served.

Increase in trend

Increasingly, across California and the nation, people are handling their own civil court matters. In San Diego County, one of the few counties where statistics are available, 46 percent of people represented themselves in divorces in 1992, but by 2000 that figure had climbed to 77 percent. One reason: increasing fees for lawyers combined with decreasing legal-aid services for poor people, said Richard Zorzo, who coordinates a national network of organizations working on self-representation. Also a factor, he said, is a "Home Depot philosophy of people feeling they can do things on their own."

But the legal system wasn't organized with a do-it-yourself approach. Juhas said the problem was brought home to him a few years ago, when a couple came before him on a routine matter. They had filed for a divorce a few years earlier, and both husband and wife had since remarried. Juhas said he looked down at their file and then back up at the couple. "I said, 'Do you realize your judgment was never entered?' " Luckily for the couple — and their new spouses — Juhas finalized their divorce without invalidating their new marriages.

From the Houston Chronicle.

The don'ts of Divorce Court

From my home town newspaper, The Atlantic City Press, comes this Top Ten list:

Here are the “Top 10 Things You Should Never Say to a Divorce Judge” — as compiled by Divorce Magazine:

10. “So she gets the gold and I get the shaft?”

9. “I don't really think you would have ruled that way if I'd been a guy (gal).”

8. “I'm really not comfortable raising my right hand and repeating after anyone.”

7. “I'm not hiding my income, so help me God.”

6. “Why are you picking on me?”

5. “No court is going to tell me what to do.”

4. “You'll have to wait a minute. My cell phone's ringing.”

3. “I don't have time for this.”

2. “You're the one who should have a psych eval.”

1. “With all due respect, Your Honor, have you ever been through a divorce?”