Video Transcript
Welcome to FreeDivorce.com.
Christina: This is Christina.
Ed: This is Ed. This video is for those people that have purchased the Marital Settlement Agreement template and are going to use the template to draft their divorce judgment. Before you start drafting your Marital Settlement Agreement, there is some information we want to give you.
Christina: Marital Settlement Agreements must be notarized. After you have drafted your agreement and both parties have carefully reviewed it, take the agreement to a notary. Sign the Marital Settlement Agreement and then have the notary notarize both of your signatures. Notaries charge $15 per signature. The court will not accept your signed Marital Settlement Agreement unless both parties’ signatures are notarized.
Ed: If you have minor children, you should attach to your Marital Settlement Agreement a copy of the child support computer calculation you used to arrive at the child support number. Many courts insist that the computer child support calculation showing the statutory “guideline” child support number be attached to the Marital Settlement Agreement. If you and your spouse are agreeing to a child support amount that is different than the statutory “guideline” number, you should still attach to your Marital Settlement Agreement a copy of the computer printout that shows the statutory “guideline” child support amount.
Christina: As we mentioned in an earlier video, there are 58 counties in California and each county has different local rules. A few counties have a local rule that even if you have a Marital Settlement Agreement with all of the required language for a proper child custody order and a proper child support order, you will still have to attach to your divorce judgment an FL-341, which is the basic child custody Judicial Council form, and an FL-342, which is the basic child support Judicial Council form. Not many counties have this rule about attaching the FL-341 and FL-342, but a few do. You can ask the Family Law Facilitator for your county if you are required to attach the FL-341 and FL-342 to your judgment if you have a Marital Settlement Agreement. In the alternative, you can just submit your judgment without the FL-341 and without the FL-342. If you live in one of the few counties that require these two additional forms, the court will return the judgment to you with instructions to include these forms.
Ed: There are certain provisions that must be included in all Marital Settlement Agreements if the agreement contains provisions for child custody. When you review our sample child custody provisions set forth in our Marital Settlement Agreement template, they start with a section entitled, “Mandatory provisions”. Do not delete any of these mandatory child custody provisions from your Marital Settlement Agreement. There are also certain mandatory provisions that must be included in your Marital Settlement Agreement if your agreement includes child support. Again, our sample child support provisions begin with a section entitled, “Mandatory provisions”. Do not delete any of these mandatory child support provisions from you Marital Settlement Agreement.
Christina: If your Marital Settlement Agreement contains child support provisions, you must attach to your Marital Settlement Agreement a Judicial Council form known as FL-192. This form is entitled, “Notice Of Rights And Responsibilities – Health Care Costs And Reimbursement Procedures”. There is nothing to fill out on this form. So, if your settlement agreement includes child support provisions, after you finish drafting your agreement, go to our Court Forms database. Select the FL-192 form and print it. After you print the FL-192 form, attach it to your Marital Settlement.
Ed: After you watch this video, go to our Marital Settlement Agreement template. In that template, you will find various topics that you may want to include in your settlement agreement. The different topics will have links that will take you to optional provisions for each topic. You can edit and then “cut and paste” the provisions you want to create your own unique settlement agreement.
