How To Push Your Divorce Case Forward

When you go through an Orange County divorce, the process can be painful. Sometimes though, these divorce cases can drag on and on making life difficult for the spouse involved in the process since the spouse will have to bear the expenses of the lawyer fighting the divorce cases and an open case without resolution.

Getting through your divorce expediently can be achieved in a number of different ways. Here are a few tips to speed up your divorce case.

Set Reasonable Goals

Sometimes it is not the other side that is causing the delay. Sometime it’s just the unreasonable expectations of both spouses that are stretching the case beyond limit. Yes you might have gone through a lot in a married life, yet the fact of the matter is that your divorce is not a battlefield. Here you cannot fight your personal battles for long. Sooner or later, you will need to set your goals reasonably or else the decision of the judge could be painful for you to swallow.

Set Timelines

To make sure that your Orange County divorce lawyer does not keep churning legal fees and asking you for more money, before the case starts you should sit down with them and set a deadline (prospective) of when you would like the case to end. That way your lawyer can work to “put wheels” on your divorce.

Make Use of the Sanctions Motion Under Family Code 271

California Family Law section 271 is a powerful one. The code has been specifically designed to ensure that the divorce process is kept moving at a brisk pace and there is no undue delay caused.  The Statute in itself is one which gives you the power of asking the other spouse who is delaying the proceedings to pay your legal bill for the divorce proceedings. The section works even if you are perfectly capable of affording your legal bill.

Primarily this article is designed to punish any and all unreasonable behavior conducted by the spouse to delay the proceedings of the divorce case. For this code section to be made use of the spouse claiming the enforcement of this statute code will need to prove that the other spouse’s lawyer is causing the delay in proceedings.

What is important to understand here is that the use of this code is meant to be made as a hammer and not a bullet. This means that if you can prove that behavior of your spouse is erratic and is delaying the case, the courts will be highly unlikely to give them a way out once they have been asked to pay the attorney fees.

Getting divorced in California can be complicated.  Download our free eBook, 18 Important Things to Know About California Divorce to educate yourself on the process.

Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.