Legal Question in Family Law in California

You can fire the attorney at any time and hire a new one. I am not sure what you meant of resetting the clock. Each new attorney will likely to spend hours to review your case first so it is hardly not resetting the clock. If you meant the separation date then that clock is not reset. The date you formed the intent to divorce will be the date the court uses for property division purposes.

If you do not have a court to provide your ex health insurance then it is your decision to cancel it. But consider that you ex is ill and needs the insurance more than ever. Anything that costs you, like a copay you can ask for reimbursement later on.

Mr. Shen's answers are basically correct but not very clear. The answer to your first question is, no, you don't restart the clock on anything by changing attorneys. He is right that there will be some start-up costs for the new attorney to get familiar with the case, but unless your divorce is unusually complex, that will not involve too much billable time. The actual legal proceedings will just continue on as if nothing had happened. As for the insurance, I guess Mr. Shen doesn't practice much Family Law or he would know that when a divorce is filed and served there is an automatic restraining order against cancelling any health insurance until further order of the court (there are a lot of other financial things restrained too, as well as prohibiting taking children out of state; all these are automatically in effect in every case). So unless you get an order from the court allowing you to drop him, dropping your husband will be an act of contempt of court subjecting you to fines and even jail time. You don't give a zip code, so I don't know where you are located, but if you are anywhere in greater Bay Area, and would like a free initial consultation about me taking over your case, please let me know.

I agree with Mr. McCormick's response regarding the health insurance. During a divorce, you are subject to automatic restraining orders, which are usually embodied in the summons. If you were the petitioning party, your attorney probably never showed you the summons, but the same orders apply to you, as they do to your spouse. You cannot change health insurance or drop your spouse from the health insurance without a prior court order. If you did so without court permission, this could subject you to contempt and more headaches.

Your attorney does not sound like he or she is doing anything other than billing you to death. You have the right to fire your attorney at any time, with or without cause. The fact that you fire your attorney does not cause you to have to file a new divorce petition, assuming the original one is still pending.