Is it really possible to do my own divorce? I almost qualify for the summary disolution, except that I have more than 5K of debt acquired since being married. It is all my debt and I don't intend to hold him reponsible for any of it. Will I have to get a regular divorce? Is there somewhere in SF/East bay I could go for assistance in doing the paperwork?

I was in San Mateo, but you can look up your county courthouse online. They have an ezlegalfile site that can help you fill the initial paperwork out online and submit it electroniy. You could do that tonight even and pay the $320 CA filing fee by credit card. Then you have to have the papers served to him, and the person serving them sends in the Proof of Service form. Then the clock starts ticking. If your ex is okay with everything in your petition (you don't disagree on any issues) then they can choose not to "respond" or send their own papers in. Then the case goes into "default" and you can file your final paperwork. For help filing the final paperwork (there are a bunch of forms) your county probably has free legal aid that you can visit during the work day. It's a bit of a pain because you can't in, you have to go in person, and wait for a while, but it's worth it because they get the forms and just highlight the parts you need to fill out. I did this a few months ago, and I never even had to go to court. It was quick and relatively painless and only cost the $320 filing fee (that you have to pay no matter how you handle your case.)

I am in Did you file a regular divorce or a summary disolution? Who serves the papers to him? How much time does he have to respond? Do you have to pay a fee for submitting closing paperwork as well? Thanks!

A regular divorce I think I could have filed a summary dissolution, but I didn't know better, so I just did a regular divorce, which was fine. You have to find someone to serve the papers to him. A friend will work, or anyone you can convince to hand him the papers and sign the documentation and send it in. He has 30 days to respond from the date that the person who serves him writes on the service papers. No, the only fee was the $320 for the filing fee.

I could not find anywhere on Alameda's website I guess I have to go do this in person then?

Here is the link for the online site I just googled it, "alameda county divorce" and it took me right to the correct site. There is a link for "ezlegalfile" which is what you want to file the initial paperwork. I'm guessing that same website will help you find information about what days and hours the free legal aid is available.

do your own divorce It's possible if you both agree to whatever needs to resolved. Mine was easy to do, went to the court house and picked up divorce papers, we both filled them out and a filing fee of $184.00, 90 days later we were both single. Jefferson County in Colorado.

The rules on Summary Dissolution are quite clear. Your going to have to go through a regular divorce, and the only difference between the two are there are a lot less forms with the Summary Disso than a regular disso. As for doing it yourself, while it can be done without assistance, it's not encouraged. One problem that I see is that if you don't spell out in your judgment that you assume all of your pre-existing debts and you become delinquent in one of them, then they could go try going after the ex for them - which would lead them to go after you.

I was a family law paralegal in California for over 18 years (10 yrs in the bay area - mostly Sonoma County - and 8 yrs in San Diego County). If I were you, I would hire my own attorney (one that has at least 5 years of family law experience) and have your attorney handle it. When I met my husband he was in the middle of his divorce (we were not dating at that time - he lived in Southern Calif and I lived in Northern Calif). Everything between him and his ex started out fine and then all Hell broke loose. They were days away from filing a judgment when she decided to turn psycho and everything was out the window. He had to re-file all of the paperwork, had several hearings, etc. The first round cost him approximatley $6,000 just trying to fix the other stuff and start from scratch. A few years later after we were married (he was still battling for custody of his two ) I made sure that when my husband had to go to court that he had a good attorney to represent him and we saved money because I did the majority of the paperwork myself. It is possible to do it all yourself, but my worst nightmare as a paralegal was when we would get a new client that had tried to handle it on their own and then things got ugly (the ex hired an attorney) and certain things that were not included in the paperwork in the beginning caused problems and it ended up costing the client more than double the attorneys fees to fix the problems than it would to have just started with someone who knows what they are doing in the first place. If the two of you are not arguing and are able to work things out amicably, your attorney's fees should be minimal and you will be able to sleep at night because it was handled correctly. We had one client who came to see us for her "second" divorce (15 years after her first) and we found out that because she and her first husband had done their divorce by themselves without an attorney, they never finished the process and were never REALLY divorced!! Talk about nightmares!! Just some input. Good luck.