Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Separation Time Before Divorce

Altough there are methods to get a judgment for divorce sooner than 6 months by proceeding via MSA, or default, in no case will your divorce be final until 6 months after you file the Petition for Dissolution. If you do get a judgement before 6 months, the Court will make the divorce final at the 6 months date!

Re: Separation Time Before Divorce

Even though you have been legally seperated for over six months, the courts still make couples wait six months before the divorce is finalized. However, no matter when you actually file for divorce you will have to wait the six months so you might as well get things going. If you don't have any children and the assets and debts have already been divided up it wouldn't cost you and your husband very much to get the paperwork done. In fact, if you would like I can do the paperwork for you and you can appear at the court hearings. There will probably be only one or two hearings if you and your husband can come to an agreement regarding the disbursement of the assets and debts. If you do have children, it does take additional time, money and paperwork in order to arrange child support, visitation and all the other things that go along with joint custody. If you are interested in getting things moving please feel free to contact my office so we can discuss your situation and how much I think it would cost depending on how you want it handled. You can email me a [email protected] with your name, phone number and quick breakdown of the kind of assets and debts you and your husband possess and what the situation is if you have children. My main office is in San Luis Obispo, but I practice throughout the state of california. You are welcome to check out my bio on this site. I wish you the best of luck if I don't hear from you, but I definately would get things going asap so that you can get this done and out of the way if you decide to get married.

John Hayes, Esq.

Re: Separation Time Before Divorce

The two prior response were essentially correct, except for two things:

1st letter: The six months begins to run from when the petition is served, not when it is filed.

2nd letter: I can't imagine why you would have even one court appearance. I thought Hayes' letter amounted to solicitation, which is prohibited by the Bar.