Personal Attorney

Highlights from
The Status Newsletter

What Does Rush Mean To You?
Each day at Personal Attorney Service we receive assignments labeled "RUSH" and "A.S.A.P". The meaning of these terms vary from person to person and can be too vague for our staff to know how to handle the assignment as you intended.

Please indicate your timelines in the large red portion on our court service instruction slip, and please be specific as to actual dates. Indicate if additional fees are approved for handling expedited assignments by checking off the small square box inside the large red area and signing your name on the line below.

Additional charges apply whenever we are asked to go to a "NEXT DAY" court on a same- day basis or when asked to go to a court or location not covered by your monthly retainer. A list of our courts' schedule is available upon written request. If you forget to sign on the approval line, we will call you to have the charges approved.

If no one is available to take our call, or has the authority to approve the charge, we will honor the timeline that you have indicated, and we will bill the appropriate charge. It is our goal to offer you the best service at all times. We will not let a statute date pass or hold back a timely filing just because we could not get approval of additional charges in advance. We would rather explain to you why you were billed than why your document was not filed as requested. When we know that you have a time requirement and there is a problem, we will call you to work out a solution. If you do not indicate your needs properly, your assignment may not be accomplished as you desired!

All Court Forms Require Holes Punched
All court forms require two (2) pre-punched normalsize holes, centered 2 1/2 inches apart, and 5/8 inches from the top side of the required 8 1/2" x 11" paper. With the advent of computer generated form programs, such as Pro Forma and Legal Solutions, we are finding that many documents do not have the required holes. Since the clerks will not accept a filing without the holes pre-punched, our staff must do this for you, causing us to get out of long filing lines and losing valuable time (a $10.00 charge may apply). Please help us to effectively file your documents.

Los Angeles Municipal Court Introduces Their Own Guardian Ad Litem Form Effective immediately, usage of the new form "Application for Appointment of Guardian Ad Litem and Order" is mandatory. Municipal court has in the past allowed the usage of the Superior court counterpart form "Petition for Guardian Ad Litem and Order". This is no longer the case. To order the new Municipal court form C1-86, indicate in quantitiesof 10, the amount of forms you require on our yellow court service instruction slip. The two-sided form is six cents each.

Court Relocation
As of June 16, 1997, the San Bernardino/Riverside division of the court has moved from its previous location of:
699 North Arrowhead
San Bernardino, CA 92401

to its new location at:

3420 Twelfth Street
Riverside, CA 92501-3819
(909)774-1150-VCIS
(909)276-2914-PACER

It has also changed its phone number to (909)744-1000. There is no change in the geographical area serviced by this division.

Revised Certificate of Assignment Needs Full Address, Including Zip Code ALL LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERIOR COURTS

Effective April, 1997, the Certificate of Assignment, (Form No. 76C134, Call No. 4) was revised. Litigants must comply with the new revisions by inserting the full address, including zip code, of the qualifying factor which they are using to determine jurisdiction. If the location does not have a street address, geographical information sufficient to identify the location will be accepted, but must include the street and the zip code of the post office serving that location.

The Certificate of Assignment Form must be completed and submitted along with any original complaint or petition initiating a case as described on the form under Nature of Action (this includes all civil, family law, probate and adoption filings). Please note that the Certificate of Assignment form is a two sided form, and it is placed as the last document in the blueback behind the pleading.

As of July 1, 1997, any Certificate of Assignment bearing a print date prior to April, 1997 will not be accepted by the clerk for filing. The print date may be found in the lower left hand corner of the form. The revised form is available immediately.

To order, please indicate quantity desired (in multiples of ten) on our yellow court service instruction slip.