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There are basically three levels of divorce proceedings. It is up to you to decide which way you want to go, depending on your individual situation. These are Summary Dissolution, Uncontested Dissolution and Contested Dissolution.

Summary Dissolution

Summary Dissolution is the easiest and least expensive option. But to use it, you must meet all of these requirements.

• Have been married less than 5 years until the date of separation
• Have no children together under age 18
• Do not need to ask for spousal support
• At least one of you must have lived in California for six months and in the county you file in for three months, unless you are a same-sex couple who were married in California and the state you live in does not allow same-sex divorces. In that case, your residency is irrelevant. You file in the county you were married in. If you are in a registered domestic partnership, residency is not required.
• You do not own or lease real estate, except for leasing your residence and there is less than one year left on your lease on the day you file
• Your joint debts are less than $6,000
• Together, your assets, excluding vehicles, are valued at less than $47,000 (retirement accounts count as assets)
• Neither one of you has separate property worth $47,000 or more, from before you married or after separation (retirement accounts count as assets)
• You agree on how you will split up your debts and assets, and that neither will receive any spousal support. In this case, you will need to sign a property settlement agreement.

A Summary Dissolution works as follows, procedurally. One person files the petition. The other person is either served by a process server, or other independent party, or signs a notice and acknowledgement of receipt. That document or the proof of service is filed with the court and the date it is signed or the date of service starts the clock. If neither party files a Notice of Revocation of Petition for Summary Dissolution, the divorce is automatically final in six months. If that form is filed, you must start all over again with the traditional divorce process.

Uncontested Dissolution

An Uncontested Dissolution is best when you and your spouse agree on everything. Child custody, visitation, property division, child support and, optionally, spousal support. At least one of you must have lived in California for six months and in the county you file in for three months, unless you are a same-sex couple who were married in California and the state you live in does not allow same-sex divorces. In that case, your residency is irrelevant. You file in the county you were married in. If you are in a registered domestic partnership, residency is only important if you need the court to decide about property, support or children.

One party, called the Petitioner, files a Petition for Dissolution and is either served papers or agrees to receive them without formal service. This starts the six-month clock for one party to be able to remarry. The court will automatically set up a mediation session with a court mediator. Be sure to attend. Each party must complete and serve financial declarations with the other. These declarations ensure that each party understands what property the spouses own together and which are separate.

In an uncontested dissolution, the parties already agree on property settlement, child custody, visitation and spousal support. The parties complete and sign a written agreement for all these items and complete the forms accordingly. After the forms are submitted, the judge reviews them and if they are “fair” then the judge will approve and sign the judgment.

The judge will evaluate “fairness” for any property settlement under the general idea that each party receives half of the community property and is responsible for half the debts. For child support, the court will use the child support calculator. Deviations from this calculation are permitted for hardship, such as one party’s high medical expenses. Spousal support is also evaluated using a calculator The general rule in California on spousal support assumes that marriages of 10 years or more may have spousal support lasting for an indefinite period of time; less than 10 years, for half the length of the marriage.

Family Code 4320 lists these factors in deciding the appropriate level of spousal support:

• How long you were married
• Your age and health
• Your incomes
• What you’re capable of earning (called earning capacity).This means each person’s skills and education along with the job market for those skills. They also consider the time and cost it might take to gain skills and education.
• Your standard of living while married. Standard of living is basically your lifestyle. It means things like the type of house you lived in, the kind of car you owned, what kind of vacations you took and how often, whether you used credit cards a lot.
• How much property or debt you each have
• Whether one of you helped the other get an education, training, career, or professional license
• Need and ability to pay; this means how much money the person asking for support would need to have the same lifestyle during their marriage and whether the person paying can pay that amount.
• The impact of tax laws on spousal support ( California tax law provides a deduction for spousal support and it is income to the receipient)
• If there was a history of abuse during your marriage
• If you have children together, how caring for children impacted either of your careers and how working now will impact your children

Contested Dissolution

A Contested Dissolution follows the same general procedure, but will require you to negotiate, with the help of the court and the court mediators, a resolution of disputed issues. You can also hire a third party to mediate. You may need to conduct discovery to find any hidden assets. If you have substantial property separately or in your marital union, you probably need to employ an attorney.

You may need to file a petition for temporary orders, if you want the Court to decide immediately, before the process is completed, where your children will live, who will live in the family residence, who will pay what bills and to determine interim financial support.

Modification of Support, Custody or Visitation Orders

Life changes, such as medical issues, change in employment, and the needs of the children are some of the possible reasons to file for modifications. Any support change will date back to when you file the motion for modification, so it is important to get started.

Bifurcation

If the dissolution proceeding is taking more than six months, and a party wishes to remarry someone else or just wants peace of mind, he or she can petition for bifurcation. Bifurcation ends the marital union, but reserves the other issues for later determination.

Legal Separation

The Legal Separation process is similar, but only one of you must live in California for at least one day. You remain married but legally and financially separate.

Community and Separate Property

California is a community property state. The personal efforts of the marital union produce value in the form of assets. One party may work and earn money, and the other work for lower compensation or stay at home. The earnings of the “community” and the assets purchased with those earnings are equally owned and controlled. This includes retirement funds and pensions. In the event of a dissolution or legal separation, the community assets should be divided as equally as possible.

Quasi community property is property which was acquired by the marital union while residing in a non-community property state, but, which would have been classified as community property if the spouses had lived in California at the time. In a California dissolution, quasi community property is treated the same way as community property. (Noted, that with respect to probate, the concept of quasi community property does not apply to real estate which is not located in California.)

Separate property is not community property. It is property that one spouse owned separately prior to the marriage, or received via gift or inheritance. However, separate property can become community property either by express agreement, or “comingling.” For example, if one party owned a house prior to the marriage, and the community paid for the mortgage and maintenance after the marriage, the increase in equity in the property will be community property. And the parties can make a gift of community property to the other spouse so that it becomes separate property.