Divorce Laws in California: Process, Property, and Support

Divorce laws in California follow a no-fault, community property model: either spouse can end the marriage without proving wrongdoing, and assets acquired during the marriage are generally split equally. At least one spouse must have lived in California for six months and in the filing county for three months before starting the case. From the day the other spouse is served, a divorce cannot become final for at least six months, and contested cases often take considerably longer. Filing fees run roughly $435 to $450, charged to both the petitioner and the responding spouse.

Who Can File in California

To file for divorce, at least one spouse must have been a California resident for the six months immediately before filing, and must have lived in the filing county for the last three months.¹ If you moved recently, you wait until you cross both thresholds.

There is a narrow exception for same-sex couples who married in California but now live in a state that will not dissolve their marriage. Either spouse can file in the California county where the wedding took place, even if neither currently lives in the state.²

If you don’t yet meet the residency requirement but need court orders on custody, support, or property right now, legal separation has no residency requirement, and you can convert the case into a divorce once you qualify.³

Grounds for Divorce

California recognizes only two grounds: irreconcilable differences and permanent legal incapacity to make decisions.¹ Nearly every case uses the first. It means the marriage has broken down and cannot be fixed. You do not have to explain why, and your spouse does not have to agree that the marriage is over. The second ground requires medical or psychiatric evidence of incapacity and is rare.

Because California is no-fault, you cannot raise adultery, abandonment, or other misconduct as a reason for granting the divorce. Misconduct can still matter in specific contexts: documented domestic violence affects both spousal support and custody, but it does not change whether a divorce is granted.

How the Divorce Process Works

The case starts when one spouse (the petitioner) files a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with the county superior court. The petitioner then arranges for someone at least 18 who is not a party to the case to formally serve the other spouse (the respondent) with the petition and summons. The respondent has 30 days to file a written response.⁴

Automatic Restraining Orders

When the petition is filed, a set of automatic temporary restraining orders (ATROs) takes effect for the petitioner. The respondent is bound the moment they are served. The restrictions are printed on the summons and cover four areas:

Neither spouse may transfer, hide, borrow against, or dispose of property without the other’s written consent or a court order, apart from ordinary living expenses and normal business operations. Extraordinary spending requires five business days’ notice to the other spouse.
Neither spouse may cancel, cash out, change beneficiaries on, or borrow against insurance policies, including life, health, auto, and disability coverage.
Neither parent may take the children out of California or apply for a new passport for them without the other parent’s consent or a court order.
Neither spouse may create or change nonprobate transfers affecting property distribution without consent or a court order.

Violating an ATRO can lead to sanctions and damages your credibility with the judge. The orders stay in effect until the divorce is final or the court modifies them.⁵

Financial Disclosures

Both spouses exchange preliminary declarations of disclosure under penalty of perjury. You must identify every asset you own or have an interest in, every debt you owe, and your income and expenses. The petitioner serves this within 60 days of filing the petition; the respondent, within 60 days of filing a response.⁶ Hiding assets or lying on these forms can lead a court to set aside parts of the final judgment later. Disputes over what each spouse actually owns are where cases get slow and expensive.

The Six-Month Waiting Period

California imposes a mandatory six-month waiting period before a divorce can be finalized. The clock starts on the earlier of the date the respondent is served or the date the respondent first appears in the case.⁷ This is a hard floor. Even if both spouses agree on everything, no judge will sign the judgment before six months have passed. Most couples finish through a negotiated settlement submitted for court approval. When the parties cannot agree, the case goes to trial and a judge decides.

Dividing Property and Debts

California is a community property state. The court must divide the community estate equally unless both spouses agree in writing to a different arrangement.⁸ The 50/50 rule applies to both assets and debts. Income earned by either spouse during the marriage, retirement contributions, real estate bought with marital funds, and credit card debt taken on during the marriage all sit in the community pot regardless of whose name is on the account.

Separate Property

Separate property belongs to one spouse and stays out of the division. It includes anything owned before the marriage, gifts or inheritances received by one spouse (even during the marriage), and earnings after the date of separation.⁹ A house owned before the wedding is separate. But if community income paid the mortgage or funded improvements during the marriage, the other spouse may have a claim to part of the increased value. Mixing separate and community funds (depositing an inheritance into a joint account, for example) can require forensic tracing to sort out.

The Date of Separation

The date of separation is the line between community and separate property. California defines it as the date of a complete and final break in the marriage, which requires two things: one spouse expressed the intent to end the marriage to the other, and that spouse’s actions matched that intent.¹⁰ Announcing the marriage is over while continuing to share finances and a household can blur the date. Because the date shifts which earnings and debts are community property, it is often heavily contested.

Spousal Support

Spousal support comes in two forms. Temporary support is paid while the case is pending and is usually calculated using a local county formula meant to keep both households running. Long-term support is set in the final judgment based on a broader set of factors.

For long-term support, the court weighs the marriage’s duration, the couple’s standard of living, the supported spouse’s earning capacity and whether their career was interrupted by domestic responsibilities, the paying spouse’s ability to pay, each spouse’s age and health, and any documented history of domestic violence, along with other statutory considerations.¹¹ No single factor controls.

For marriages under ten years, the general expectation is that support will last about half the length of the marriage. A six-year marriage might yield roughly three years of support. For marriages of ten years or more, there is no automatic cutoff, and the court keeps ongoing authority to modify support.¹²

Domestic violence changes the calculation. If one spouse was convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor against the other within five years before filing, or while the case is pending, there is a legal presumption that the convicted spouse will not receive spousal support. The convicted spouse can try to overcome that presumption, but the burden is on them. The court can also move the date of separation to the date of the violent incident, which affects property division.¹³

Child Custody and Support

California splits custody into two pieces. Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about a child’s health, education, and welfare. Physical custody is where the child lives. Courts often award joint legal custody and are open to joint physical custody when both parents are fit and cooperative.

Every custody decision runs through the best-interest-of-the-child standard. The court considers the child’s health, safety, and welfare; any history of abuse; the nature and amount of contact with each parent; and any pattern of substance abuse.¹⁴ The stated goal is frequent and continuing contact with both parents, so long as that contact is safe.

If parents cannot agree on custody or visitation, California requires them to attend mediation before the court will hold a contested hearing.¹⁵ Some counties use recommending mediators who will advise the judge when parents cannot settle; others are non-recommending and simply report that no agreement was reached. Either way, the case does not reach a contested hearing until mediation has been tried.

Child support follows a mandatory statewide formula. The calculation uses each parent’s net monthly disposable income and the percentage of time each parent has physical custody. Higher-earning parents who spend less time with the children pay more. The formula scales with additional children and accounts for taxes and certain deductions.¹⁶ Judges can deviate in limited circumstances, but in practice the guideline drives the result.

Support typically ends when the child turns 18 and graduates from high school. If the child is still in high school full-time at 18, support runs until graduation or age 19, whichever comes first. Support also ends if the child marries, joins the military, or is emancipated. Parents can agree to extend it, and courts can order continued support for an adult child who is disabled and unable to be self-supporting.¹⁷

Simpler and Alternative Paths

Summary Dissolution

Couples with short marriages, no children, and modest property may qualify for summary dissolution, a streamlined version of divorce. You must meet every one of these criteria:

Married or in a registered domestic partnership for less than five years.
No minor children together and neither spouse is pregnant.
No interest in real estate, except a rental lease that expires within a year of filing.
Combined debts, excluding car loans, under $7,000.
Combined community property worth less than $57,000, and neither spouse’s separate property exceeds $57,000.
Both spouses agree to waive spousal support.
Both spouses agree on how to divide all property and debts.

Miss any single item, and you use the regular divorce process.¹⁸ The six-month waiting period still applies, and either spouse can stop the case during that period by filing a revocation notice.

Legal Separation

A legal separation does not end the marriage. You remain married and cannot remarry, but you can get court orders dividing property and debts, setting custody and visitation, and awarding support. There is no residency requirement.³ It is a common choice for people who need court protection quickly, or who have religious, insurance, or personal reasons to stay legally married.

Annulment

An annulment treats the marriage as if it were never valid. You do not need to meet the six-month residency requirement or wait six months to finish, but you have to be living in California when you file, and you must prove specific grounds.¹⁹

Some marriages are automatically void: marriages between close blood relatives and marriages where one spouse was already married. Other marriages are voidable, meaning they can be annulled if certain conditions are proven. Voidable grounds include:

Age. One spouse was under 18 and did not have a judge’s permission to marry. File within four years of turning 18.
Fraud. One spouse lied about or concealed something central to the marriage, and the truth would have prevented the wedding. File within four years of discovering the fraud.
Unsound mind. One spouse did not understand what was happening during the ceremony.
Force. One spouse was forced into the marriage. File within four years.
Physical incapacity. One spouse is permanently unable to consummate the marriage. File within four years of the wedding.

Most voidable grounds carry a four-year deadline. Miss it, and your only option is divorce.²⁰

1
California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2310 – Grounds for Dissolution
2
California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2320 – Requirements for Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage
3
Superior Court of California. Divorce, Legal Separation, and Annulment
4
California Courts. Divorce Forms
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2040 – Summons and Temporary Restraining Orders
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2104 – Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2339 – Waiting Period for Judgment
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 2550 – Equal Division of Community Estate
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California Courts. Property and Debts in a Divorce
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 70 – Date of Separation
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 4320 – Spousal Support Factors
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California Courts. Long-Term Spousal Support
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 4325 – Domestic Violence and Spousal Support
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 3011 – Best Interest of the Child
15
Justia Law. California Family Code 3170-3173 – Mediation of Custody and Visitation Issues
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California Legislative Information. California Family Code 4055 – Statewide Uniform Guideline
17
California Courts. Child Support
18
California Courts. Find Out if You Qualify for Summary Dissolution
19
California Courts. Annulment
20
California Courts. Legal Reasons a Judge Can Annul a Marriage