Hello and welcome to Q & A Wednesdays, a free service where California Family Mediator and Lawyer Helene Taylor answers our readers legal questions. If you have questions about your divorce or legal separation, please submit your legal questions here and tune in next week for the answers.
This week’s legal questions are about health insurance coverage after divorce, determining the date of separation, and understanding who is responsible for expenses incurred after the date of separation. Also, a technical glitch prevented our recording the answer to a third question, which is provided below regarding the length of time it takes for a judge to sign the final Divorce Judgment.
Press play to listen to the legal answers to the first two questions presented this week:
Question 3 (not included in the audio recording):
Our final divorce court date was Sept 10, 09. The judgment required my husband to pay spousal support and restored my former name. I am representing my self. The judge told us nothing would be final until her signature was on the documents. My husband’s lawyer said he would prepare the judgment for signature, which I agreed to. How long does it normally take to see the judge’s signature on the judgment, for my maiden name to be restored and of course, for the $325 spousal support to be paid?
Answer: There are two parts to the answer to this question.
First, the time it takes to obtain a judge’s signature on the final judgment depends on two things:
- The time it takes for the lawyer to submit the proposed judgment to the court for the judge’s signature; and
- The time it takes for the court to process the paperwork and this depends on how backlogged the court is. Generally speaking, if the judgment is simple and the packet complete, it usually doesn’t take more than 6 to 8 weeks for the court to process the Judgment. Thus, in a situation like yours, I recommend you contact the court clerk to make sure they received the proposed judgment from your husband’s lawyer. You can also call the lawyer’s office and ask that they send you a copy of the judgment documents that were submitted to the court.
If the lawyer has not prepared the Judgment documents yet you can take the initiative and prepare the documents yourself. You are not required to do this, but if your husband’s lawyer hasn’t done it yet, you may want to do so.
Second, with regards to when you should start receiving your spousal support payments, the start and finish date for spousal support payments are not usually tied to the date when the judgment is filed and approved by the Court. The start and finish dates for spousal support are usually set by the judge during your Court hearing. For example, a judge will order “Support payments shall begin immediately and continue through May 31, 2012 and shall be paid on the 1st day of each month.”
If in your case the Judge did not establish a start date for the payments and there is a chance that they are inadvertently tied to the date the Judgment is signed, run, don’t walk to the Court to find out whether the documents were submitted by your husband’s lawyer and if they have not, jump on board! The delay so far has cost you nearly $1,000! Run, girl, run.
Don’t forget to submit your legal questions here and tune in next week for the answers.
Disclaimer: The answers provided are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. No attorney client relationship is established by your use or participation in this service. All answers are based on California family law. We always recommend that you consult with your own attorney regarding your specific legal situation.
