Legal Question in Family Law in California

I don't mean to sound harsh, but this question has been asked a lot in the past few days and there should have been responses to this question in the archive for this category. Legal separation just confirms that your earnings while you are separated is your separate property. You are not free to marry again, and if you did marry while you were separated, your marriage would be void on grounds of bigamy. A divorce legally terminates your marital status, so that you are free to marry again.

Again Roach is half right. A properly completed legal separation not only separates income going forward, it involves a complete adjudication of property, support, and if applicable child custody and support issues, just like in a divorce. He is right about the key difference, however. Legal separation does not end the marriage and so neither person can remarry and if they reconcile they don't have to get married again. It also means that the spouses retain inheritance rights, unless modified by wills executed after the legal separation. The bottom line is that legal separation is a divorce for people who for some reason (almost always religious) can't be officially divorced.