There seems to be a misconception in the general public that you can only obtain a divorce in California if your spouse will sign the divorce papers. I get this question a lot from our family law clients. The fact is that California is a no fault state and you do not need your spouse’s signature in order to get a divorce. What is more important is being able to satisfy the jurisdictional requirement of the Court of residing in the State for at least 6 months prior to filing the petition and in the County for 3 months prior to filing the petition.
The only time you may need your spouse’s signature is if there are issues in the divorce case such as community assets and debts, custody and visitation, spousal and child support, and the parties are in agreement with all the terms. In that situation, the parties may avoid the cost and uncertainty of going to trial by executing what is called a stipulated judgment which is in essence an agreement as to all the issues in the divorce case. Other than that, you do not need your spouse’s signature. If there are no issues in the divorce case and the other spouse does not file a response to the Petition for dissolution, you may simply default the other party and seek a default divorce judgment form the Court. If there are issues, then you may set it for a prove up hearing and have the Court decide how to resolve the issues.
However if your spouse files a response, then your case is what you called a contested divorce case. You will have to go through the litigation process which involves obtaining discovery, exchanging declarations of disclosures, and preparing the case for trial. Ultimately, you will obtain your divorce at trial in addition to adjudication of the distribution of community assets and debts amongst other issues. It is in the best interest of the party to retain the representation of competent counsel who will assert his or her rights under the family code.
Attorney Kenneth Ursua Reyes was President of the Philippine American Bar Association. He is a member of both the Family law section and Immigration law section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He is a graduate of Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles and California State University, San Bernardino School of Business Administration. He has extensive CPA experience prior to law practice. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH REYES, P.C. is located at 3699 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA, 90010. Tel. (213) 388-1611 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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