There are several requirements you’ll need to meet and procedures you’ll have to follow for you to file a divorce petition in California State. Firstly, you need to have lived in California for the past six months and must have lived in your county of filing for the last three months.
You submit the petition to end the marital union to the county’s superior court. Then, you must serve the petition and specific other paperwork to your spouse. At this point, there’s a chance that the divorce and its grounds will be contested. However, even if it’s not contested, there’s a waiting period of six months before the divorce is finalized.
California recognizes the no-fault divorce system. By this, it means you don’t need to give any claims of fault when filing for a divorce in this state. On this note, only two grounds of filing for divorce in California exist— clinical insanity of one of the spouses and irreconcilable differences which have damaged the marital union beyond repair. However, even though fault isn’t a basis for divorce, the court can still use it when determining other issues like alimony and child custody.
In a few cases, both spouses may bring a joint divorce petition. If that’s the case, and:
- No minor under eighteen years, real estate, or significant debts are involved,
- The union hasn’t lasted over five years, and
- Other specific conditions are met,
a ‘summary divorce’ is made. In this case, there won’t be a waiting period. The female spouse being divorced also has to change her sir name to what it used to be before marriage.
