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Divorce in California: The Complete Guide

    

This is the first article in our series about "Divorce in California". You can find the links to the other articles at the bottom of the article.

If you’ve decided to initiate a divorce proceeding, you’re probably feeling pretty intimidated by the process. 

Consider this your ultimate guide to divorce in California, from filing your petition to receiving your final divorce decree. By the time you finish reading, you’ll have all of the information you need to end your marriage with relative ease.

California is a No-Fault Divorce State

One important thing to keep in mind as you begin the divorce process is that California is a no-fault divorce state. That means that marital wrongdoing like adultery will not impact the outcome of your divorce case.

In many states, divorce law dictates that the filing spouse has the opportunity to pick from a designated list of possible divorce grounds, and then they must prove the truth of their allegation in court. If that spouse successfully proves fault, then they may get the better end of the deal with regard to spousal support and the division of property (but not usually child support or child custody).

In your California no-fault divorce, you or your spouse will simply cite “irreconcilable differences” on your divorce petition, meaning you have decided that it’s time for your marriage to end, regardless of the reason.

The no-fault divorce mandate under California law can be a good or a bad thing. 

On the one hand, taking fault out of the equation can lead to more amicable divorces, less time spent in court, and a lot fewer attorney fees. In fact, many no-fault divorcees can avoid hiring a family law attorney altogether.

On the other hand, it can be very frustrating to never get the opportunity to hold your cheating spouse responsible for what they’ve done wrong. This can be even worse if you’re also the breadwinner -- nobody likes paying spousal support to the party who caused the marriage to break down in the first place.

Since family law is pretty complicated, we have a couple of quick caveats to the no-fault mandate.

First of all, if you are a survivor of domestic violence, that is something you are definitely going to want to make known to the court. The court is empowered to issue temporary restraining orders (or TROs) to protect your physical safety and your finances throughout the divorce proceedings, and a history of violence may impact the outcome of a custody dispute (especially if that violence was directed at the child).

As a side note, you should never be nervous about disclosing domestic violence to your California divorce lawyer. The attorney-client relationship is subject to a comprehensive set of professional ethics, and anything you tell them will be kept completely confidential.

The second caveat is that you will need to be more specific about the grounds for ending your marriage if you are seeking an annulment (also known as a nullity of marriage). You are only eligible for an annulment in California if there is some reason why your marriage wasn’t legal to begin with, like if the filing party was under the age of 18 at the time of marriage, or if one spouse was already legally married to someone else.

The Requirements to Apply for a Divorce in California

Did you know that not just anyone is eligible to get a divorce in California? You’re going to want to make sure you meet these guidelines before you start filling out the paperwork.

The first step in establishing your eligibility for a California divorce is making sure that you meet the state residency requirement. Specifically, either you or your spouse has to have lived in the state of California for at least the previous six months, and one of you has to have lived in the county in which you are filing for at least three months.

In almost all ways, the process for dissolving a domestic partnership is the same as the California divorce process, but the residency requirement is actually a rare instance in which the processes diverge. 

Neither you nor your domestic partner has to even currently live in California in order to dissolve your legal partnership in a California court. The only requirement, in that case, is that your domestic partnership was registered in California to begin with.

The only other real baseline requirement for filing your California divorce forms is that you either pay the filing fee or file a fee waiver showing that you are unable to pay. The fee can vary based on how complicated your case is or the county in which you reside, but it starts at $435.

How to File for Divorce in California

Now that you know whether or not you’re eligible to undergo the California divorce process, let’s dive into some step-by-step instructions for how to file for divorce in California.

You may already know that the first step is for one spouse to file a form called the divorce petition. The petition gives the court some basic information about you and your spouse and shows that you’ve met all of the requirements for getting a divorce in California.

Next, you will have to serve your spouse the initial divorce papers. This ensures that they have been legally notified that you are seeking a divorce so that they can be held responsible if they fail to respond.

After they are officially served, your spouse is required to fill out a set of documents called the response. This paperwork closely mirrors the information you provided in the petition, so it doesn’t usually matter who is the petitioner and who is the respondent.

Next comes what many divorcing couples find is the hardest part -- reaching a deal. You and your spouse will have to negotiate how to resolve family law matters like property division, spousal support, child support, and custody.

If you’re lucky, you and your spouse are getting along well enough to conduct these negotiations on your own in a DIY divorce. If not, you can do so in divorce mediation, collaborative divorce, or through your attorneys.

If the two of you just aren’t getting anywhere no matter how hard you try, then the family court will be more than happy to impose a divorce settlement on you. This means giving up a lot of autonomy, but sometimes it’s the only option to bring your marriage to an end.

Finally, once all of these matters have been resolved, the superior court will issue a final judgment. This means your marriage is officially over.

Like most court documents, your divorce certificate will be a public record, so it will be clear that you and your spouse are no longer legally joined.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does It Take to Get a Divorce in California?

When all is said and done, the average California divorce takes about 15 months.

Like most general questions about divorce, how long your California divorce will take greatly depends on the specifics of your case. However, we can still help you get an idea of what to expect.

First of all, it will always take at least six months to get divorced in California, because state law has instituted a mandatory six-month waiting period. This means that a California court will not issue a final judgment until six months from the day your petition was filed.

However, even if you and your spouse already have a deal completely worked out on day one, you can usually expect your divorce to take longer than six months. Courts are often overburdened, but they’re trying the best that they can to complete your case in a timely manner.

What tends to make a divorce take longer is resolving the substantive issues of your divorce. By that, we mean things like child support, spousal support, custody, and the division of debts and assets.

It can be hard to keep a level head when you’re already emotional about your marriage ending. It’s important to remember that fighting tooth and nail over every stick of furniture in your house is probably hurting you at least as much as it’s hurting your spouse.

You can read more about this in our article, “How Long Does It Take to Get a Divorce in California?

How Much Does a Divorce Cost in California?

Overall, California’s average cost of divorce is about $17,500.

This is another question that really depends on your personal circumstances. Some divorcing couples end up only paying the filing fee, while others end up paying their attorneys to the tune of tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The cost of your divorce is impacted greatly by the method of negotiation you choose. In order of most to least expensive, your options include collaborative divorce, litigation, mediation, online divorce, and DIY divorce.

When you’re considering which process to choose, we urge you to consider the emotional costs as well. 

This is especially important if you have children. While litigation tends to be cheaper than the collaborative process, families come out of divorce much happier when they find some way to work together toward a common goal.

You can read more in our article, “How Much Does a Divorce Cost in California?

What Are The California Divorce Papers?

We’re not going to lie to you. All of that divorce paperwork can be a real hassle.

The state of California has a grand total of eighteen divorce forms. Luckily there are online divorce services like “It’s Over Easy” that can fill them out for you!

We’re not going to describe them all here, because we’ve already written an article devoted to that very topic. Click the heading link above for in-depth information on every piece of paper the court is going to want from you before you and your spouse can split.

You can read more about each form in our article about the “California Divorce Papers”.

What's the Difference Between Legal Separation and Divorce?

You know that you and your spouse are unhappy in your marriage, but how do you resolve the age-old case of a legal separation vs. divorce in California?

The difference between the two is basically this: when you get legally separated, you work out a full settlement agreement as if you were getting divorced, but you maintain certain (limited) rights and responsibilities of marriage. For example, you still might be responsible for making medical decisions if your spouse becomes incapacitated, or you might still be eligible to receive healthcare through your spouse’s employer.

When you get divorced, your marriage is 100% over and you maintain no legal relationship whatsoever.

There are a lot of reasons why couples opt for one path over the other. Click the link above to learn more about the differences between divorce and legal separation so that you can decide which one might be right for you.

What's the Difference Between Uncontested and Contested Divorce?

As you look into getting a divorce, you might have heard the words contested and uncontested thrown around a lot, but what do they mean?

Remember how we said that you can resolve family law matters like spousal support, child support, custody, and property division either on your own or with professional help?

Well, if you’re able to come to an agreement without the aid of a judge, then you are said to have undergone an uncontested divorce. If you end up duking it out in court, then your divorce is considered contested.

Unsurprisingly, uncontested divorces tend to be a lot faster, easier, and less expensive than contested divorces, which are great reasons to make uncontested divorce your goal.

Even better yet, keeping your divorce uncontested makes you eligible to get divorced online with “It’s Over Easy”. That way, you’ll pay one low flat fee for your entire divorce from start to finish, and you won’t have to fill out a single sheet of the paperwork yourself.

To continue learning about divorce in California, see the following articles in the series:

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