Legal Question in Family Law in California

With a legal separation you can't remarry, and in case your faith prohibits it, you haven't gotten a divorce.

You can't get remarried until you are divorced. I have no idea what Mr. McCormick refers to, as faith has nothing to do with the law.

Unlike Mr. Roach, some attorneys realize that there is more to answering a legal question than just reciting the law. That is where faith sometimes has a great deal to do with the practice of law, because the law may impact issues that are important to a person's faith. The distinction between divorce and legal separation is one of those situations. There is no meaningful difference between a legal separation and a divorce, except that you cannot remarry and a legal separation is technically not a divorce. Property is divided, and custody, child and spousal support are all ordered the same as in a divorce. Therefore, the only reason for getting a legal separation instead of a divorce is if there is some reason that makes it a problem to be divorced. Other than some bizarre will provision that disinherits a person if they get divorced (which a decent lawyer would have drafted to include legal separation anyway) there is no reason I have ever heard of to legally separate instead of divorce except religious prescriptions. Faiths that prohibit divorce will generally allow legal separation. That is pretty much the entire reason it exists.