- Six Months Residence… One spouse, petitioner or respondent, has to be a resident of the state of California for at least six consecutive months before filing for divorce. The spouse must also have lived for three consecutive months in the applicable county. For example, If someone is traveling for a year and works in a different country or state, that interrupts the six months period. However, going on vacation of course for a week or two does not interrupt the determined amount of stay. Determining residency is all about having the intent of being a resident of the state before filing.
- Cooling off Period… From the moment the petitioner files for divorce and serves the other spouse, the cooling off period of six months and one day starts ticking. The clock starts ticking from the moment of serving the divorce paperwork— not from filing, not from date of separation, but from serving the divorce paperwork to the other spouse. This means, both spouses cannot be single until six months and one day has lapsed, which doesn't happen automatically.
- Termination of Marital Status… There are many ways to terminate marital status and reserve all issues for a later time. One way to do it, once you know that the six months and one day period is over soon, is to file a termination of marital status, called Bifurcation Status Only, Request for Order, FL-300. Then, the requirement is that the moving party serves the respondent or defendant. The moving party could be the respondent who files the Request for Order and wants to be single or could be whoever files a Request for Order. That party has to prove that they served the PDD (Preliminary Declaration of Disclosures) FL-142 and FL-150, Assets and Debt, and Income and Expense Declaration to the other spouse. All other rights are reserved... for example, there is no issue with health insurance because as you know until the divorce is final, if one spouse has the other spouse on their health insurance, they have to keep it. So, all rights, inheritance rights, retirement rights, all these rights, have to be preserved. That's one way to terminate marital status.
- Another way to terminate marital status in an uncontested case that is amicable, is to prepare the entire judgment package. This means having all the forms together for judgment and marital settlement agreement and then submitting it to the court as soon as both parties have exchanged preliminary declaration of disclosures, looked up the checklist (FL-182), filed the divorce package based on your specific case, and then submitted it to the court. Then, even if you submit before six months and one day the court can stamp the judgment package and declare the parties single on a future date. You will get a judgment package back which includes the judgment form, the FL-180. The judgement form will say on the top right corner that the parties’ marital status is terminated or divorced, granted on (future date).
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