Legal Question in Family Law in California

To determine where you properly file for divorce, it's not were you used to live but where you live now. In California, you must live in the state for at least six months and in the county for at least three months before you can file your petition for divorce. Meet with an experienced family law attorney to assist you in determining your legal options.

Ms. Kock is correct that where you were married or used to live is not relevant to family law jurisdiction. The problem you are going to face is that even though you may still have jurisdiction in LA, and you probably have jurisdiction in IL, to end the marriage, IL definitely will not have, and LA probably no longer has personal jurisdiction over the CA resident spouse. So even though you can get a divorce that will be considered a legal end to your marriage in all 50 states and most if not all the world, division of assets and debts can only be adjudicated against someone where they currently live. So unless the CA spouse consents to IL or LA jurisdiction, you will have to conduct your divorce proceeding in CA. This is all assuming you have no minor children of the marriage. If you DO have kids, it is a whole other situation because nation-wide law comes into play as to jurisdiction for custody and support.

There are two issues. For a divorce to be properly filed in Los Angeles, California's residency laws would have to be met. Under those requirements, either you or your spouse must have lived in: California for the last 6 months, AND the county where you plan to file the divorce for the last 3 months.

If you don't plan to file divorce here because you live in Chicago, that is fine, but the spouse living in Los Angeles may file here. In that case, any service would also have to be a valid exercise of personal jurisdiction over you. Personal jurisdiction has nothing to do with California's residency requirements, and instead involves a factual analysis of your ties to California.