If you’ve recently moved to the state of California and are keen to apply for a divorce, then according to the California divorce law you or your spouse must have been resident in the area for at least 6 months to be eligible to apply.
Otherwise you won’t reach the first hurdle. However whilst you are waiting for the six month deadline to pass, you may be eligible to apply for a Marital Separation Agreement. Actually, even if you’re eligible to apply for a divorce already but you haven’t yet applied for a Marital Separation Agreement you may want to think about it, in particular if you have children, property or joint debts in your marriage.
You may well be asking, at this point, what is a Marital Separation Agreement? Well, basically it is a written agreement between the two parties concerned which aims to outline and agree each of the details necessary to the ending of your marriage relationship. The point of this document is to remove some of the emotional roller-coaster of the divorce proceedings, since everything is clearly set out on paper, it is less likely for misunderstandings to occur. In addition, according to California divorce law, this agreement can be provided as extra evidence to the court, proving that your relationship ended on a particular date.
When filing for divorce, under California divorce law just as with other states, you need to cite the reason why you want to end your marriage relationship. There are two main reasons recognised under California divorce law these being, incurable insanity of one of the parties and irreconcilable differences between the two parties.
In the first case of incurable insanity you need to provide medical proof and testimonials testifying to the truth of this. It is also important to bear in mind that it is still within the court’s power to order you to support your spouse. By law, if this is ordered, you are obliged to continue to do this even if your divorce petition is granted as requested.
With regard to a petition made on the basis of irreconcilable differences, under California divorce law if the court does not ascertain that there are reasonable grounds, then your petition for divorce will be rejected.
Whether or not you decide to use a lawyer to present your divorce petition is, naturally, a personal decision. Although it is possible that hiring a lawyer, despite the expense, can have the benefit of facilitating a faster and more painless resolution to the situation.
As a last note, though the information here is up to date at the time of writing, please bear in mind that California divorce law (as with all other laws), does change. It is always advisable to recheck the situation if you are thinking of filing for divorce, to ensure you have the latest, most accurate information at your disposal before proceeding.