Introduction

This Alpha California Divorce Kit provides an efficient and effective way of obtaining a legally valid divorce under the laws of the State of California.  Under California Laws, there are procedures for two types of divorce actions, namely, a Regular Divorce and a Summary Divorce. This kit provides the step-by-step procedures and forms required to obtain a Regular Divorce under California Laws, it does not therefore, include any forms for the Summary Divorce since those forms are available at all County Clerk offices.

This book does, however, provide needed information if a Summary Dissolution is appropriate in your case. See Chapter 3, Summary Divorce, Advantages and Disadvantages. Also, this Chapter outlines the requirements which must be met before the Summary Divorce procedure can be utilized. Before you proceed further, you might want to thoroughly review the "Check List Of Dissolution Forms in front of the Table of Contents in order to observe the scope of Forms included in this Kit. Keeping in mind, however, that it would indeed be an extremely rare case if all of these forms were required to be used. In fact, unless your situation is a complex case involving a great mixture of property, debts and children, this kit is a low cost alternative to the high cost of legal services.

In order to successfully complete a divorce action under California Laws, it does however require that you expend some efforts in reading the included material and preparing the forms; but, the dollar savings is substantial when compared to Attorney or Paralegal Fees.

The availability of the Free Help Line (no charge ever) is your assurance that we stand behind your decision to do-it-yourself with our Alpha Divorce Kit.

The text material that follows will briefly outline the requirements for a divorce, child custody and support, community property and debts, retirement plans, health insurance, a description of all of the included Forms and the steps required to file and complete the divorce action. Each of these factors plays an important role in the drafting of the Divorce petition and the Court's subsequent consideration in granting the divorce. While the word divorce is widely used both in this text and in the real world, generally, the court description of a divorce action is "Dissolution of Marriage". Therefore, in this text, as elsewhere, the usage of the words "Divorce" and "Dissolution" are one and the same. Since this text material is written in such a way that each point is directly discussed and resolved, it is important that you take a few moments to review this material before commencing the preparation of the forms.

It will be mentioned here that even though the forms included in this kit appear to cover every conceivable aspect of a divorce action, this must be qualified by pointing out that all of the forms included here are those forms adopted by the California Judicial Council for mandatory use in all Dissolution, Separation or Annulment actions.

If you purchased this kit with the thought of pursuing either an annulment or legal separation action, you are in luck because the forms included in this kit may be used in both annulment and legal separation actions. And, in fact, the court procedures for both of these actions are identical in all respects to the divorce procedures, plus, all of the divorce directives included in this text are fully applicable. All that is required is that the appropriate action (annulment, dissolution or legal separation) be indicated on the Petition and other applicable pleading forms.

It will also be mentioned that there may be a procedural form required by certain counties under their Local Rules which are not included in this Kit. This is especially true when the action is filed in a Branch Office of the Superior Court. These types of procedural Forms are provided by those County Clerks in each such instance, and should, of course, be requested when the Petition For Dissolution of Marriage and other papers are initially filed. It will be mentioned here that the 1993-94 Law changes require the service of both a Preliminary and Final Declaration of Disclosures upon the respondent. The Preliminary Declaration of Disclosures must of course be served with the petition, while the Final Declaration must be served prior to submitting the judgment to the Court. Since neither of these disclosures will be filed with the Court, a Declaration Regarding Service of the Final Disclosure must be filed with the court along with the judgment and other final papers.

There are other forms provided by the publisher which are not included in this kit, but are available as indicated on page 28. This would include: (a) Marital Settlement Agreements; (b) Joint Custody Parenting Plan (c) Form Set for child(ren) born during the marriage, but not fathered by husband; (d) Publication of Summons Supplement; and (e) Declaration of Disclosure Supplement Forms. A complete description of these form sets are listed on pages 28. At any rate, we do wish to extend our thanks to you for allowing us to assist you in pursuing this important event. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to call or write.