This page gives you an overview of the steps in a California Divorce. There are links in each section to take you to more detail pages about each particular step and also sub pages for the particular issue.
Initiate the Proceedings
The first step in any divorce is to start the proceedings. This involves preparing a petition and summons, filing them with the Court and then serving them on the other party. You or the other party must have been a resident of the State of California for at least six months preceding the filing of the action, and a resident of the County where the action is filed for at least three months prior to filing.
Potential issues:
- Neither of has been here long enough
- The other party has disappeared and I don’t know where there are
- The other party is trying to leave with the kids
- The other party is trying to take money away now, how do I stop them.
Obtain Preliminary Orders
You can see temporary orders regarding child custody, child support, and spousal support at the time you file your petition, or any time thereafter. Support will be based on a computer calculation based on the income of the parties. In the case of child support, it will also depend on the timeshare percentage.
Complete Mandatory Disclosures
The law requires divorcing parties to complete and serve disclosures of income and assets on the other party. The disclosures are mandatory. You’re divorce cannot be completed without them. There is also the potential of significant sanctions if you fail to disclose an item of property that is later determined to be a community asset.
Do Necessary Discovery
In order to properly divide assets and set support levels, you may need to obtain more information about the assets, debts and the other party’s income. This is accomplished by a procedure called discovery. Discovery can consist of:
- Requests that the other party admit certain facts or the genuineness of documents.
- Request that the other party provide you with certain documents – such as bank account statements, title documents, etc.
- Ask specific written questions of the other party or of third parties who have relevant information.
- Take depositions – where you make ask a party questions as if you were in Court and have their answers recorded. Depositions may be taken of the opposing party, or of third parties with relevant information.
Discovery is a very technical area of the law. If your case is complicated enough that you need to conduct discovery, you likely will need to hire an attorney.
Trial
If the parties can’t reach an agreement, then the case will need to be tried. Often times, it is the pressure of a looming trial date that causes parties to reach settlement.
Trial is also a very technical area of the law. The results of your discovery will be presented to the Court as evidence to support your case. There are a lot of parties in Court today without attorneys, but if you have to go to trial, its best that you have an attorney to help you.
Post Judgment Modification and Enforcement
After judgment, circumstances may change – such as one party needing to move – that make previous orders unworkable. You can go back to Court to have your child custody arrangement or you child or spousal support orders modified. However, after trial you must show a significant change in circumstances to get the orders changed.
You may also find that the other party isn’t following the agreement and you may have to go back to Court for additional orders.