When will I finally be Single

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As summer comes slowly to an end, prenuptial agreements are still a hot item. Clients would like to get married and would like to create a valid prenuptial agreement. Here is how to create a valid agreement that will be upheld in court.

Let's get started…

  • Let's say in an uncontested divorce where both parties agree about everything, they filed a package, they submitted, and everything is done super-fast in three months. Then they get court paperwork back in San Francisco within three to six months from the court depending on how packed the courthouse is, the judge, and what time of the year it is. From here, the date when both parties can be single will be six months and one day from service. You could receive a package two months before you will be single. Then you can use that form to show you are single. The form is nothing special, it's just a standard form, FL 1-180 judgment that will say divorced, dissolution, on ________, and then you will see the date right on top.
  • Here’s another scenario for example, if the divorce is not so amicable and it's dragged out because of a custody battle, property disagreement, or whatever there could be and then you still would like to remarry and it's already two years past and you really want to be single, then for that purpose, you would file a so-called bifurcation status only.

There's one form that I found really helpful. It's a form FL-347 which you can Google. Obviously, none of what I'm saying is constituting legal advice, it's just general information that you can look up. On that form it says, and it's the law, there are two requirements to get your status to be single. You file a motion, a request for order, you get a hearing date, and you can get a single status only most of the time, if two requirements are met:

  • 1. Number one, the moving party, meaning the one who wants the sitting single status, only serves the Preliminary Declaration of Disclosures to the other side, it's called PDD.
  • 2. Or there are two other possible forms, the Income and Expense Declaration form with attachments and the Assets and Debt form with attachment. If either of those have been served to the other side and you have the type of retirement that doesn't have to be joined to the proceeding, then that would be sufficient to get single status only.

Keep in mind that single status only doesn't give a final divorce bifurcation. Single Status only bifurcates. The word bifurcate I would use as a separate from all other issues that are not resolved. So, any other issues will be reserved to be resolved  at a later time. However, using a bifurcation status you can first be single before the other issues are resolved. 

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