No one enters into marriage thinking that the relationship will untimely end. There will be some challenging times ahead, even if part of you wants to end your relationship with your spouse.
Legal separation is similar to a divorce in that it resolves all of the issues between the parties, except that the parties remain married to one another. Dissolution of marriage, more commonly known as a divorce, terminates the marriage of the spouses and resolves all issues between the parties, including property and debt division, spousal and child support and child custody.
There are only two legal grounds in which the California Courts will grant a dissolution of marriage. The first is incurable insanity, which must be proven. The more common grounds for dissolution are that there are irreconcilable differences between the parties that cannot be rectified.
In order to file for dissolution in California, at least one of the parties must reside in the state of California for at least 6 months immediately prior to filing. You then are permitted to file in the county of residence in which you have lived for the previous three months. The residency requirements for a legal separation are less strict. For a legal separation, at least one of the parties must be a resident of the county in which you file at the time the case commenced.
Filing for dissolution or legal separation is simply the first step. It takes a minimum of six months and one day from the date that you or your spouse is served with the Summons and Petition, or six months and one day from the time that a Response is filed, to the time the court can grant a Judgment of Dissolution. The attorneys at the Law Office of Cecil and Cianci, PC, are here to assist you through every stage of the process.
