A major part of the Sacramento divorce process is completion of the mandatory declaration of disclosure. Under California law, both parents must complete a preliminary declaration of disclosure and a final declaration of disclosure. In a PDD, you are required to list all of your assets and debts you and your spouse acquired during the marriage, regardless of whose name each asset or debt is in. You will also need to list the values and loan balances of each asset and debt along with a statement of value for each asset/debt. You are also required to complete a current Income and Expense declaration and include proof of income (paystubs, profit and loss statements, tax returns, etc). Everything is signed under penalty of perjury and each party is required by law to list everything. Once this document is complete, and it may be a large document, you are required to serve your spouse with it and file a proof of service with the court.
Your spouse also has a duty to prepare and serve their PDD on you and file the proof of service with the court. The Sacramento divorce court will not proceed to adjudicate your divorce or enter a marital settlement agreement unless both spouses have filed their proofs of service of their preliminary declarations of disclosure.
Both spouses also have to augment or update their PDD’s if anything changes during the divorce. Both spouses must also disclose business and investment opportunities to each other. The law also technically requires the spouses to prepare a second declaration of disclosure called the Final Declaration of Disclosure. The parties can also waive this requirement in their divorce judgment.
If you are in the middle of a Sacramento divorce and are having difficulty preparing your preliminary declaration of disclosure, please give our office a call. It is important that you are advised of your legal rights and that one of our Sacramento divorce attorneys has an opportunity to review your case with you.
Subscribe To This Blog’s Feed