The divorce process in California moves through a set sequence — file a petition, serve your spouse, exchange financial disclosures, resolve property and support and custody either by agreement or by court order, and receive a final judgment — and no divorce can be finalized in fewer than six months from the date the responding spouse is served or appears in the case.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2339 California is a no-fault, community property state, so you do not need to prove wrongdoing, and most assets and debts acquired during the marriage get divided equally.
Residency Requirements
Before you can file for divorce, at least one spouse must have lived in California for six months and in the county of filing for three months.2California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2320 If you moved recently, you may need to wait, or file in the county where your spouse meets the requirement.
Filing the Petition and Serving Your Spouse
The case begins when one spouse, the petitioner, files a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (Form FL-100) in the superior court of the appropriate county.3California Courts. Petition – Marriage/Domestic Partnership (Family Law) The petition states the date of marriage, the date of separation, whether there are children, and what orders you want. Almost everyone lists “irreconcilable differences” as the ground.
Filed alongside the petition is a Summons (Form FL-110). The summons notifies your spouse of the case and imposes automatic restraining orders on both spouses the moment the petition is filed. Those orders bar either party from hiding assets, canceling insurance, or taking the children out of state.4Judicial Council of California. Form FL-100 – Petition – Marriage/Domestic Partnership
Filing fees run roughly $435 to $450. If the fee is out of reach, you can request a waiver on Form FW-001, available to people who receive public benefits, have low income, or cannot cover both basic living expenses and court costs.5California Courts. Request to Waive Court Fees
Service and the Response Deadline
You cannot hand the papers to your spouse yourself. A third party who is not involved in the case must serve the petition and summons, and the petitioner then files a Proof of Service of Summons (Form FL-115) with the court. Your spouse has 30 days after being served to file a response.6California Courts. How to Finish Your Divorce if Your Spouse Did Not Respond If no response arrives within that window, you can ask the court for a default. A default does not automatically grant everything requested, but it does prevent your spouse from contesting the outcome.
The Six-Month Waiting Period
Even when both spouses agree on everything, California will not finalize a divorce until at least six months after the respondent was served or appeared in the case, whichever comes first.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2339 This is a hard minimum. A court can extend it for good cause; it cannot shorten it. Contested cases routinely run well past six months because of discovery, negotiations, and hearing schedules. Until the judgment is final, you remain legally married, which matters for taxes, benefits, and remarriage.
Summary Dissolution
Couples with short marriages and limited assets may qualify for a summary dissolution, a streamlined route that avoids most of the paperwork and court involvement of a standard case. Every one of these conditions must be met: the marriage lasted less than five years, there are no minor children, neither spouse owns real estate, community property totals less than $57,000, each spouse’s separate property is under $57,000, and debts (excluding car loans) are below $7,000. Both spouses file jointly, and the divorce can be finalized after the same six-month waiting period without a court hearing. If you miss even one condition, you are back in the standard process.
Financial Disclosures
Both spouses must exchange a preliminary declaration of disclosure early in the case. The petitioner serves it within 60 days of filing the petition, and the respondent within 60 days of filing the response. Each disclosure includes a Schedule of Assets and Debts (Form FL-142) and an Income and Expense Declaration (Form FL-150).7Judicial Council of California. FL-140 Declaration of Disclosure
A final declaration of disclosure is exchanged before the case settles or goes to trial, though both parties can waive it in writing. Disclosures are signed under penalty of perjury, and lying can be grounds for the court to set aside parts of the judgment later. If your spouse withholds information, formal discovery — interrogatories, depositions, subpoenas — can pull it out, and courts can sanction a spouse who hides assets.
Temporary Orders
Some issues cannot wait months for a final judgment. Temporary orders address who pays the mortgage, where the children live, and whether either spouse needs financial support during the case. To request one, file a Request for Order (Form FL-300) explaining what you need and why.8California Courts. Request for Order (FL-300) The court schedules a hearing, both sides argue, and the judge issues the order. Temporary orders stay in place until the final judgment or until a judge changes them. Violating one can bring contempt of court.
Dividing Property and Debt
California follows the community property rule: nearly everything acquired during the marriage belongs equally to both spouses, regardless of who earned it or whose name is on the account.9California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 760 Debts work the same way. A credit card balance one spouse ran up during the marriage is usually community debt.
Separate property stays with its owner. That includes anything owned before the marriage, inheritances, and gifts received by one spouse alone.10California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 770 Income from separate property, like rent on a building one spouse owned before the marriage, is also separate.
The Date of Separation
The date of separation is the line between community and separate property, so pinning it down matters. California defines it as the date one spouse communicated to the other that the marriage was over, backed by conduct consistent with that intent.11California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 70 Earnings after that date are separate. When a bonus or stock vesting falls near a disputed date, the exact day can become a significant fight.
Assets that mix separate and community funds — a home bought with an inheritance down payment and paid down with marital earnings, for example — require tracing to divide. Courts split the community portion equally but can assign specific items to one spouse and balance the difference with other property of equal value.
Spousal Support
Spousal support (alimony) is meant to prevent one spouse from a sudden financial collapse after divorce, particularly when one partner set aside a career for the family. The court weighs each spouse’s earning capacity, the length of the marriage, contributions one spouse made to the other’s education or career, each party’s needs based on the marital standard of living, and any history of domestic violence.12California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 4320
Temporary support during the case is calculated using a county-specific guideline formula. Long-term support ordered in the judgment is less mechanical. For marriages shorter than ten years, the general expectation is that support lasts about half the length of the marriage. Marriages of ten years or more are considered “long duration,” and the court retains ongoing authority to award support without a preset end date.12California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 4320 Either spouse can later ask the court to modify support when circumstances change significantly. Support ends automatically when the receiving spouse remarries or either party dies.
Child Custody and Support
Custody decisions turn on the child’s health, safety, and welfare. The court does not start with a preference for mothers or fathers; it weighs each parent’s relationship with the child, the child’s ties to school and community, and which parent is more likely to encourage a relationship with the other.13California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 3040 Immigration status, gender identity, and sexual orientation cannot be held against a parent.
Legal custody (major decisions about education, healthcare, and religion) and physical custody (where the child lives day to day) are treated separately and can go to one parent or be shared. Courts want parents to reach a parenting plan themselves. If they cannot, the dispute goes to mediation before any hearing. When mediation fails, the judge may order psychological evaluations or appoint a custody evaluator before ruling.
Child Support Calculations
Child support runs on a statewide formula that factors in each parent’s net monthly income, the percentage of time each parent has physical custody, and the applicable support rate based on combined income.14California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 4055 The rate rises with income at lower levels and flattens at higher incomes. For multiple children, a multiplier increases the total: 1.6 for two, 2.0 for three, and up from there. Attorneys and judges run the numbers through software, but the formula is public and online calculators give a workable estimate.
Support orders can be changed later if either parent’s income or the time-share shifts substantially.
Dividing Retirement Accounts
Retirement accounts earned during the marriage are community property, but dividing them takes an extra step. For private employer plans covered by federal law — 401(k)s, pensions, and similar accounts — you need a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, or QDRO. Without one, the plan administrator cannot legally pay benefits to anyone other than the account holder, no matter what the divorce judgment says.15U.S. Department of Labor. Qualified Domestic Relations Orders Under ERISA – A Practical Guide to Dividing Retirement Benefits
A QDRO must identify both spouses, the plan being divided, and the amount or percentage going to the alternate payee.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 414 Fixing a defective QDRO after the divorce is final can be difficult or impossible, so gather plan documents early.
IRAs are simpler. Transferring an IRA interest to a former spouse under a divorce decree is not a taxable event, and the receiving spouse treats it as their own IRA going forward.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 Government and church retirement plans generally sit outside the federal QDRO rules and require a different court order with its own requirements.
Taxes, Health Insurance, and Social Security
Property transfers between spouses as part of a divorce are generally tax-free. Federal law provides that no gain or loss is recognized when you transfer property to a former spouse if the transfer is incident to divorce.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1041 The receiving spouse takes the original cost basis, so a tax bill may hit later when the asset is sold.
Alimony has no federal tax impact for divorces finalized after December 31, 2018. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, spousal support payments are not deductible by the payer and are not taxable income for the recipient.19Internal Revenue Service. Divorce or Separation May Have an Effect on Taxes Divorces finalized before 2019 keep the old treatment unless the parties modify the agreement to adopt the new rules.
If you were covered under your spouse’s employer health plan, losing that coverage is one of the most immediate consequences of divorce. Federal COBRA rules let a former spouse continue coverage for up to 36 months after divorce, but you pay the full premium yourself without the employer subsidy.20U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs on COBRA Continuation Health Coverage for Workers COBRA applies to employers with 20 or more employees. Smaller employers may fall under a state “mini-COBRA” law.
Social Security is easy to overlook. If your marriage lasted at least ten years, you are 62 or older, you have been divorced for at least two years, and you are currently unmarried, you can collect benefits based on your ex-spouse’s earnings record without reducing their benefit.21Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.331 You qualify only if the divorced-spouse benefit exceeds your own. Couples approaching the ten-year mark should weigh the timing carefully, because falling short forfeits this option.
Final Judgment and Restoring a Former Name
If you settle every issue through negotiation or mediation, you can submit a written agreement to the court for approval without a trial. When issues remain, the judge holds a hearing, both sides present evidence, and the judge decides property division, support, and custody.
The court issues a judgment of dissolution that ends the marriage and spells out each party’s obligations. The judgment does not become final until the six-month waiting period has run from the date your spouse was served or appeared.1California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 2339 Once final, you are legally single. Violating the judgment can trigger wage garnishment and contempt proceedings, so read every page.
If you changed your name at marriage and want it back, the simplest option is to include the request in the judgment. Write your desired former name on the judgment form (FL-180), and the signed judgment is your legal proof of the name change. This route only restores a name you used legally before; a brand-new name requires a separate petition. If you did not request the change during the divorce, you can file an Ex Parte Application for Restoration of Former Name (Form FL-395) with the court that handled your case.22California Courts. Change Your Name in Your Divorce Case Either way, the name change does not update your records automatically. Take a certified copy of the judgment to the Social Security Administration, the DMV, your bank, and anywhere else your name is on file. Certified copies cost $40 from the court, with a fee waiver available if you qualify.