Looking to file for divorce in Santa Barbara County? Here is a guide that provides procedural information to get you through the process. We have also included local resources that can assist with the process.
The Documents: A divorce in California is typically broken into a least 2 major phases. The initial phase is known by the court as the Petition and Preliminary Disclosures. These documents are completed, filed with the local county court, and then can be served on the other party. At that point the court requires a 30 days wait period to give the respondent the chance to response to contest the case. This initial phase does not make any orders, but provides the court general information about the case. Certain attachments and disclosures only apply to certain cases but common disclosures would be income and expense, assets and debts, and custody and visitation requests.
After the 30 days from serve has past, the court will allow you to move forward with the Judgment. The Judgment is what makes orders on the divorce case. The court offers several options on how to move forward depending on if the respondent did or didn’t respond. If no response, the court allows the petitioner to file a default judgment either with or without an agreement of the parties. If contested you may have to schedule hearings/conferences/trials to have orders made by the court. If you think your case will be contested, or you have many issues that may be subject to the court making orders, or just have general questions about your rights and responsibilities with your divorce case you can view our list of Family Law Attorneys in Santa Barbara County by searching above.
The Court: Divorce Petitions and Judgments are filed and processed through the Family Law Courts. As mentioned above, the initial documents don’t make orders so the clerk will file, issue a case number and return copies to you that are ready to be served on the other party. Upon filing the court will take their filing fee for the petition unless you have filed a Request to Waive Court Fees with your petition. Ask your Legal Document Assistant or Attorney about this option.
Notification: The Santa Barbara County Court requires the respondent be served the filed documents. The court offers several options for this including personal service, serve by mail with certain restrictions and some other less common options. For assistance completing the process serve, completing a proof of service and filing the proof of service with the court search for Santa Barbara County Process Servers above.
Court Appearance: As mentioned above, court appearances may or may not be required in your case depending on what the respondent does when they are served. If court appearances are in your case your legal professional will give you more details about what to expect.
As always, the information provided is not legal advice but rather procedural overviews of a process. Some information may vary from court to court if they have specific local procedures that go further than statewide procedures. Listings provided in the directory are not endorsed by our site, but rather compiled to provide local resources for consumers seeking professional legal services.
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