California Divorce: Filing, Joint Petitions, and Timelines

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Contents

A California divorce involves more than filing a petition
Grounds and residency answer different questions
Starting with a petition filed by one spouse
Starting together under the joint-petition procedure
Financial disclosures are an exchange, not a private shortcut
Property, support, and interim court orders
The waiting period and the judgment are separate requirements
Sources

Key Facts

California state level: California permits divorce based on irreconcilable differences that have caused the marriage to break down.
California state level: Ordinarily, one spouse must have lived in California for six months and in the filing county for three months immediately before the petition is filed.
California state level: The six-month minimum waiting period does not end the marriage automatically; a judgment must establish the effective termination date.
California state level: A regular joint-petition procedure became operative January 1, 2026, for spouses who intend to resolve every issue by agreement.
California state level: Financial disclosure duties continue even when spouses agree about the divorce.

A California divorce involves more than filing a petition

A California divorce, called a dissolution of marriage in court papers, involves both marital status and any related issues concerning property, support, or children.

Filing starts the case, but the court still needs the appropriate disclosures, resolution of the issues, and judgment paperwork before the process is complete.

The route also matters: a case started by one spouse uses different initial service and response steps from a case the spouses start together.

This guide covers California marriage-dissolution procedure; it does not set out the separate rules for ending a registered domestic partnership.

The national overview of divorce provides broader context for the state-law system.

Grounds and residency answer different questions

California’s no-fault ground is irreconcilable differences: substantial reasons for not continuing the marriage that have caused its irremediable breakdown.

The statute also recognizes permanent legal incapacity to make decisions, which requires proof including competent medical or psychiatric testimony.

No-fault divorce does not mean that property, support, and parenting issues disappear from the case.

The ordinary residency rule requires the same spouse to satisfy both the six-month California period and the three-month filing-county period immediately before filing.

The other spouse does not also have to satisfy those periods.

There is a specific exception for a same-sex marriage entered in California when neither spouse lives in a jurisdiction that will dissolve it.

For that exception, the proper California court is in the county where the marriage was entered.

A legal-separation proceeding may also be amended to request dissolution after the applicable residency requirements have been met.

That is a procedural distinction between legal separation and divorce, not a waiver of the divorce residency requirement.

Starting with a petition filed by one spouse

In the ordinary individual-petition route, the opening forms include the Petition—Marriage/Domestic Partnership, FL-100, and Summons, FL-110.

The petition identifies the marriage and the issues the court is being asked to address.

The child-jurisdiction declaration, FL-105, records where the spouses’ children live and whether other court cases involve them.

California courts use the same basic divorce forms, although a particular court may also require local forms.

The filed petition and summons must then be served on the other spouse through an authorized method.

Personal service is one method, but the rules also recognize alternatives such as mail with an acknowledgment of receipt, substituted service, and court-authorized publication or posting when their requirements are met.

The proof-of-service form, FL-115, records who served the opening papers and when and where service occurred.

Under the ordinary summons, the respondent has 30 calendar days after service of the summons and petition to file a Response, FL-120, and have a copy served on the petitioner.

Missing that deadline can allow the court to make orders affecting marital status, property, custody, support, and legal fees without a timely response from that spouse.

A default is not an automatic divorce: California law still requires proof supporting a dissolution judgment.

Starting together under the joint-petition procedure

Since January 1, 2026, spouses who intend to resolve all matters by agreement can begin with a joint petition rather than having one spouse file against the other.

They do not need a completed settlement before filing, but they must intend to reach agreement on every issue in the case.

The joint forms are Joint Petition—Marriage or Domestic Partnership, FL-700, and Summons—Joint Petition, FL-710, filed together.

Filing the joint petition completes service on both parties by law and counts as both spouses appearing in the case.

That removes the ordinary opening sequence of serving one spouse and waiting for that spouse’s initial response.

A joint filing also involves fees for both parties, subject to the applicable fee-waiver rules; one shared petition does not mean only one party’s filing fee applies.

The spouses still exchange financial disclosures, reach a complete agreement, and submit a judgment.

A joint petition is different from summary dissolution, the separate simplified divorce route with its own eligibility requirements.

The practical limit of the regular joint route is its reliance on agreement: a party requesting a temporary order or trial setting must file the appropriate amended pleading to revoke the joint petition before or at the same time as that request.

Either party can make that change before judgment, and the service papers include the amended petition or response and Notice of Revocation of Joint Petition, FL-720.

The case then continues through the individual-petition process, while the original joint filing date is retained for the action and relevant deadlines, including the waiting period.

Financial disclosures are an exchange, not a private shortcut

California requires disclosure of assets and liabilities in which a spouse has or may have an interest, including items described as separate property, together with income and expense information.

Calling an account separate property therefore does not remove it from the disclosure process.

For the ordinary petition-and-response route, the petitioner generally serves preliminary disclosures within 60 days of filing the petition, and the respondent within 60 days of filing the response.

Those periods can be extended by a written agreement or a court order, and the statute contains a special timing rule when court-authorized publication or posting is followed by a response before default judgment.

The preliminary disclosure includes all tax returns the person filed within the two years before serving it, as well as the required asset, debt, and current income information.

The preliminary disclosure itself is not filed with the court unless the court orders otherwise; proof that it was served is filed.

That distinction explains why a court file may contain proof of an exchange without containing the underlying disclosure packet.

The duty also continues: material changes must be disclosed as the case progresses.

Final disclosures normally precede or accompany an agreement resolving property or nontemporary support issues, or are due no later than 45 days before the first assigned trial date, unless an applicable exception or waiver applies.

A mutual waiver of final disclosures requires sworn representations that the preliminary disclosures and current financial information have been exchanged and updated, and that the waiver is knowing and voluntary.

It is not permission to conceal information or an ordinary waiver of preliminary disclosures.

Separate statutory exceptions apply in true default cases, including different treatment when service was by court-authorized publication or posting.

Property, support, and interim court orders

The general California rule is equal division of the community estate, unless the spouses make a written agreement or an oral stipulation in court, or another statutory exception applies.

That rule does not say that every asset either spouse owns is automatically divided in half.

Property characterization and valuation remain distinct questions, and liabilities must also be classified and assigned under the applicable rules.

The court ordinarily values community-estate assets and liabilities as near as practicable to trial, rather than automatically freezing their values at separation.

The divorce court’s authority also covers child custody, child support, spousal support, and attorney’s fees, so equal property division does not by itself resolve those issues.

While an individual-petition case is pending, a request for temporary orders can bring issues such as temporary spousal support before the court.

Those requested orders are different from the standard restraints in the summons, which already restrict specified conduct involving children, property, and insurance.

For example, the standard orders restrict taking the parties’ minor children out of California or applying for a new or replacement passport for them without the other party’s prior written consent or a court order.

The property-transfer restriction has exceptions for the usual course of business and necessities of life, and the summons separately permits use of property to pay an attorney or court costs.

The regular joint summons also includes statutory temporary restraints, even though a request for a new court order requires changing out of the joint-petition process.

The distinction between procedural help and representation is covered in the guide to California family-law legal help.

The waiting period and the judgment are separate requirements

In the ordinary individual-petition case, the minimum six-month period runs from service of the summons and petition or the respondent’s appearance, whichever occurs first.

Filing an individual petition alone therefore does not necessarily start that clock.

In a regular joint-petition case, filing counts as service and appearance, so the six-month period begins with the joint filing.

The six months are a minimum, and the court can extend the period for good cause.

Agreement between the spouses does not eliminate the need for a judgment or allow the marriage to end before the statutory minimum.

The judgment must specify the date the marriage legally ends, which may be later than the date the judge signs it.

In some cases, the court can separate the marital-status issue from the remaining issues and enter a status-only judgment, subject to statutory conditions and protections.

That procedure does not erase unresolved property or support questions: the judgment must reserve jurisdiction over the other pending issues.

The important distinction is between starting the case, satisfying the minimum period, and obtaining an effective judgment; completing one does not automatically complete the others.