Legal Question in Family Law in California

In the State of California, if a spouse (the petitioner) files for a "legal separation" and the respondent (the other spouse) replies to that petition and submits it to the court without contesting It's my understanding that there will either be a court hearing scheduled upon request by either party unless both parties sign an agreement to legally separate.

QUESTION: What if we never sign that agreement to separate or there is no court hearing requested by either party? Will the courts automatically schedule a hearing "OR" Is there a deadline to take it to the appropriate next level? (I only responded because I thought I had to do so as the respondent but discovered that this may not have been necessary). I did NOT contest the petition nor did I ask for any spousal support or anything else and there are no children or assets to liquidate.


Asked on 6/05/10, 11:19 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Nothing will happen until one of you seeks a judgment of legal separation. That would be true whether or not you responded. The only difference is that if you had not responded you could not be the one to request the judgment.

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Answered on 6/08/10, 2:12 pm


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