In California, parties must wait at least 6 months before they can get divorced. But, in reality, most divorces take years. Even in the rare cases where everyone agrees to an early global settlement of all issues, or to resolve only the issue of marital status in a separate judgment, it can take the court many more months to enter a divorce judgment. In short, expect delays. You cannot plan your divorce party just yet.
A critical factor to speeding up a case, is completing the mandatory financial disclosures at an early juncture, and pressuring the other side to do the same. Until the mandatory financial disclosures are exchanged, the community property of the marriage cannot be divided.
This assumes that both spouses are fully forthright and disclose all of their assets and debts, and income and expenses. When one spouse is less than forthcoming, discovery is required to get the omitted information. For example, you have the power to obtain your spouse’s bank statements directly from the bank. But, this adds costs and delay. Discovery motions, with attorney fee sanction requests, can be filed with the court to get compliance.
With only a few forms, it is easy to start the divorce process. But bringing a case to judgment is much harder, unless you and your spouse qualify for summary dissolution. I am focused on obtaining resolution to issues in my clients cases, and to bringing their cases to judgment economically and efficiently.
