Filing for Divorce in California: Step-by-Step (Forms, Fees, and Timeline)

California divorce runs on Judicial Council forms, a six-month clock, and a disclosure requirement that trips up more self-represented filers than anything else. The good news is that the process is the same in all 58 counties, the forms are free, and every courthouse has a self-help center and a Family Law Facilitator whose job is to help you fill them out. The less good news is that the sequence matters: file the wrong form, skip the disclosure step, or serve the papers yourself, and the clerk rejects your judgment months later and the clock does not care.

This guide walks through the California process in the order it actually happens — from confirming you can file here to the day the judgment is entered — with the form numbers, the fees, the deadlines, and the places where cases stall. It covers both the spouse who starts the case (the petitioner) and the spouse who receives it (the respondent).

For California's substantive rules — community property, spousal support duration, child support, custody factors — see the California divorce guide. This article is about the procedure.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. The Family Code sections and form numbers cited are current as of the publication date; the Judicial Council revises forms periodically (the revision date is printed in the lower-left corner of each form, and the court will reject superseded versions). Confirm current forms at the California Courts Self-Help Guide, and consult a California family law attorney about your situation.

Before You File: Three Threshold Questions

1. Can you file in California?

Under Family Code § 2320, at least one spouse must have lived in California for the six months before filing, and in the county where you file for the three months before filing. "Lived" means domicile — actual residence with intent to remain — not citizenship or immigration status.

If you do not meet the residency requirement yet, you have two options: wait, or file for legal separation now (which has no residency requirement) and amend the petition to dissolution once the six months have run. The legal separation guide covers that bridge. Same-sex couples who married in California but live in a state that will not dissolve their marriage may file in the California county where they married without meeting the residency rule (§ 2320(b)).

2. Do you qualify for summary dissolution?

California offers a simplified procedure under Family Code § 2400 for the simplest cases. You qualify only if all of the following are true:

• Married less than five years on the date you file
• No children together, born or adopted, before or during the marriage, and neither spouse is pregnant
• Neither spouse owns real estate (a lease of less than one year with no option to buy is fine)
• Community debts, excluding car loans, are below the current statutory cap (about $7,000)
• Community property, excluding cars, is below the current cap (about $57,000), and neither spouse has separate property above the same cap
• Both spouses agree on how to divide everything, sign a property settlement agreement, and waive spousal support
• Both have read the summary dissolution booklet (Form FL-810)

The dollar caps are adjusted periodically; the current figures are printed in FL-810. If you qualify, you file a joint petition (FL-800) together, pay one filing fee, skip the service step entirely, and receive a judgment (FL-825) after the same six-month waiting period that applies to everyone else. Either spouse can revoke the joint petition (FL-830) at any time before judgment, which converts the case to a regular dissolution. The rest of this guide describes the regular process; most couples do not qualify for the summary track, usually because of a child, a house, or a 401(k) balance.

3. Have you fixed your date of separation?

The petition asks for it, and it matters more in California than in most states. Under Family Code § 70, the date of separation is when a complete and final break in the marriage occurred — one spouse expressed the intent to end the marriage and acted consistently with it. Earnings and acquisitions after that date are separate property (§ 771), and the length of the marriage for spousal support purposes runs from the wedding to that date. Choose it carefully and consistently; the marital vs. separate property guide explains why it can be worth arguing about.

Step 1: Prepare the Opening Forms

Every regular California dissolution starts with the same core forms, all available free from the Judicial Council:

Form	Name	Required?
FL-100	Petition — Marriage/Domestic Partnership	Always
FL-110	Summons (Family Law)	Always
FL-105	Declaration Under UCCJEA	If you have children under 18 together
FL-311	Child Custody and Visitation Application Attachment	Optional; details your custody request
FL-160	Property Declaration	Optional at filing; required later unless FL-142 is used
Local cover sheet	e.g., Los Angeles FAM-020	Check your county's local rules

The petition (FL-100). This is where you state the ground for divorce — in California that is almost always irreconcilable differences under Family Code § 2310; the only alternative is permanent legal incapacity — and check boxes for what you are asking the court to do: terminate the marriage, divide property, award or deny spousal support, decide custody and support, and restore a former name. Three things to get right:

• Ask for everything you might want. If the respondent never files a response and the case proceeds by default, the court generally cannot award relief you did not request in the petition (Code Civ. Proc. § 580). A petitioner who leaves the spousal support box blank and later wants support is in a weak position. You can list assets and debts on the petition in general terms and attach a property declaration for detail.
• The date of separation, discussed above.
• Statistical facts — date of marriage, length of marriage in years and months — because they drive the spousal support analysis.

The summons (FL-110). Beyond notifying the respondent that they have 30 days to respond, the summons carries California's Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders on its second page. Under Family Code § 2040, from the moment the petition is filed (for the petitioner) and the moment of service (for the respondent), neither spouse may:

• Remove the children from the state, or apply for a new or replacement passport for them, without written consent or a court order
• Cash, borrow against, cancel, transfer, or change the beneficiaries of any insurance — health, life, auto, disability — held for the benefit of the other spouse or the children
• Transfer, encumber, conceal, or dispose of any property, community or separate, outside the ordinary course of business or the necessities of life, without consent or a court order
• Create or modify a nonprobate transfer (a living trust, a transfer-on-death designation) affecting the other spouse's property interest without consent

The ATROs apply automatically; nobody has to ask for them. Violating them is contempt and, in the case of property transfers, usually gets unwound at the other spouse's expense. Read the second page of the summons before you do anything with a joint account.

The UCCJEA declaration (FL-105) lists where each child has lived for the past five years and any other custody cases, so the court can confirm it has jurisdiction over custody. It is required with the petition whenever there are minor children.

Step 2: File and Pay (or Get the Fee Waived)

File the original and two copies at the superior court in your county. Most counties now accept or require electronic filing through an approved e-filing service provider; self-represented litigants can usually e-file but are not always required to. Check your county's local rules — Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego all have county-specific requirements and cover sheets.

The filing fee for a first paper in a family law case is $435 in most counties (Gov. Code § 70670), with a few counties adding a small local surcharge. The respondent pays the same amount to file a response. A summary dissolution carries one fee for the joint petition.

Fee waivers. If you receive public benefits (Medi-Cal, CalFresh, SSI, CalWORKs, and others), your household income is below the threshold printed on the form, or you cannot pay the fee and meet your basic needs, file a Request to Waive Court Fees (FW-001) with the petition. The court issues an order (FW-003) granting or denying it, usually within five court days. A waiver covers the filing fee and most later fees, including the fee for a court-appointed interpreter and, in some counties, the sheriff's service fee. The court can later order the fee repaid out of a property settlement if you end up with the means.

When the clerk accepts the filing, you receive a case number and conformed (stamped) copies. One of those copies, plus a blank Response form (FL-120) and blank UCCJEA declaration, is what gets served on your spouse.

Step 3: Serve Your Spouse

You cannot serve the papers yourself. Service must be made by someone 18 or older who is not a party to the case — a friend, a relative, a registered process server, or the county sheriff. The options, from most to least common:

1. Personal service (Code Civ. Proc. § 415.10). The server hands the summons, petition, and blank response forms to your spouse and completes a Proof of Service of Summons (FL-115). Service is complete that day, and the 30-day response clock and the six-month waiting period both start.
2. Notice and acknowledgment (§ 415.30). If your spouse is cooperative, mail the papers with a Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (FL-117); your spouse signs and returns it, and service is complete on the date they sign. This is the standard route in agreed cases.
3. Substituted service (§ 415.20). After reasonable diligence — typically three attempts at personal service at different times — the server may leave the papers with a competent adult at your spouse's home or workplace and then mail a copy. Service is complete ten days after mailing.
4. Service by publication or posting (§ 415.50). If you genuinely cannot locate your spouse after a diligent search, you apply for a court order allowing publication in a newspaper (or posting at the courthouse if you have a fee waiver). You must document the search — last known addresses, relatives, employers, social media, DMV and voter records, internet searches — in a declaration. Publication is slow (four consecutive weeks) and costs several hundred dollars or more, and a default judgment obtained by publication is more vulnerable to being set aside.

File the completed FL-115 with the court. The date of service is the most important date in the case: the earliest possible date your marriage can end is six months and one day later.

Military spouses. A service member on active duty has protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act against default judgments; you will be asked to declare their military status before any default is entered. The military divorce guide covers the specifics.

Step 4: Respond (If You Are the Respondent)

If you have been served, you have 30 days to file a Response (FL-120), with FL-105 if there are children, and pay the $435 fee or file a fee waiver. The response is your own statement of what you want the court to do — it need not mirror the petition, and it should ask for everything you might want for the same default reason the petition does.

Two points respondents routinely get wrong:

• Filing a response is how you preserve your voice. If you do not respond within 30 days, the petitioner can request entry of your default, and the case can proceed without you. You can still negotiate and sign an agreement without filing a response, but you have no right to be heard on contested issues until you set aside the default — which requires a motion and a good reason.
• The ATROs bind you from service. Everything on the second page of the summons applies to you the moment you were served.

If you and your spouse have already reached agreement and want to keep costs down, there is a middle path: do not file a response, but sign an Appearance, Stipulation, and Waivers (FL-130) or a notarized marital settlement agreement, which allows the case to proceed as uncontested without a second filing fee. More on that in Step 7.

Step 5: Exchange Preliminary Declarations of Disclosure

This is the step that stalls more California divorces than any other, because it is mandatory, it cannot be waived, and the court will not enter a judgment without proof it was done.

Under Family Code § 2104, each spouse must serve the other with a Preliminary Declaration of Disclosure consisting of:

• FL-140 — Declaration of Disclosure (the cover form)
• FL-142 — Schedule of Assets and Debts (or FL-160, Property Declaration), listing every asset and debt, community or separate, with values and supporting documents
• FL-150 — Income and Expense Declaration, with your last two months of pay stubs attached
• Tax returns for the last two years
• A statement of any investment opportunity or business opportunity that arose since separation

The petitioner must serve this within 60 days of filing the petition; the respondent within 60 days of filing the response (§ 2104(f)). The disclosure itself is served on the other spouse, not filed with the court. What you file is FL-141, a one-page Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure, which tells the court you did it. A judgment packet without both spouses' FL-141s (or the respondent's defaulted-out) comes back rejected.

A few things to understand about this step:

• It is sworn and it is permanent. Section 2100 imposes a fiduciary duty of full and accurate disclosure between spouses. A judgment obtained without complete disclosure can be set aside years later (§ 2122), and a spouse who conceals an asset can be ordered to forfeit it entirely — the famous In re Marriage of Rossi lottery case — or sanctioned under § 2107. Complete the schedule as if the other side already knows everything, because in discovery they probably will.
• The FL-150 is reused everywhere. Any request for temporary support, the judgment packet, and every later modification requires a current FL-150, which the court treats as stale after about 90 days. The financial affidavit walkthrough covers how to complete it accurately; the financial document gathering checklist covers what to collect first.
• The Final Declaration of Disclosure (§ 2105) can be waived; the preliminary cannot. Most agreed cases waive the final declaration by signing a Stipulation and Waiver of Final Declaration of Disclosure (FL-144). The preliminary is required of every petitioner in every case, and of every respondent who appears.

Organizing your assets and debts before you sit down with FL-142 — account numbers, balances as of the separation date, titles, loan statements — turns a miserable weekend into an afternoon. A complete asset inventory maps nearly line-for-line onto the schedule.

Step 6: Temporary Orders, Custody Mediation, and Discovery

Nothing requires either spouse to ask the court for anything between filing and judgment. Many agreed cases go straight from disclosure to the judgment packet. But if you need rules during the case — who pays what, where the children live, who stays in the house — the mechanism is a Request for Order (FL-300).

Temporary support and custody. File FL-300 describing what you want, attach a current FL-150 for any financial request and FL-311 for any custody request, and the clerk sets a hearing date, typically four to eight weeks out. Serve the other spouse at least 16 court days before the hearing; they file a Responsive Declaration (FL-320). Hearings are short and decided largely on the papers. The temporary orders guide explains why these orders tend to become the template for the final ones. Temporary child support follows the statewide guideline (Family Code § 4055); temporary spousal support in most counties follows a local formula — the Santa Clara or Alameda guideline — that applies only during the case, not after judgment.

Mandatory custody mediation. If any custody or visitation issue is contested, Family Code § 3170 requires the parents to attend mediation with the court's Family Court Services before the judge hears it. The court schedules it when a custody RFO is filed. In "recommending" counties (most of the state, including Los Angeles for some case types, San Diego, and Sacramento), the mediator writes a recommendation to the judge if the parents do not agree; in "non-recommending" counties (including San Francisco and Santa Clara), the session is confidential and nothing goes to the judge. Know which type your county is before you walk in, because in a recommending county the session is effectively the first custody evaluation. The divorce with children guide covers the best-interest factors the mediator and judge apply, and the custody evaluation checklist covers what happens if the court orders a full evaluation (Evidence Code § 730).

Emergency orders. For a genuine emergency — a child about to be taken out of state, an account being drained — you can apply ex parte for immediate orders (FL-305) under California Rules of Court 5.151–5.169, with notice to the other side by 10 a.m. the court day before unless you can show notice would cause harm. The bar is high; routine urgency does not meet it.

Domestic violence. A Domestic Violence Restraining Order is a separate proceeding on DV-100 forms, with no filing fee, that can be heard the same day. A finding of domestic violence within the past five years triggers a presumption against custody for the abusive parent (Family Code § 3044) and can bar spousal support to them (§ 4325). The divorce and domestic violence guide covers the process and safety planning.

Discovery. Beyond the mandatory disclosures, either spouse can use the ordinary civil discovery tools — form interrogatories (FL-145), requests for production, depositions, subpoenas to banks and employers. Most agreed cases never use them; most contested property cases depend on them. See the discovery process guide.

Step 7: Reach Judgment — The Four Paths

How your case ends depends on two facts: whether the respondent filed a response, and whether the spouses have a written agreement. That produces four paths.

	Written agreement	No agreement
Respondent filed a response	Uncontested (stipulated) judgment — both signed the agreement; no hearing	Contested — settlement conference, then trial on the remaining issues
Respondent did not respond	Default with agreement — respondent signs a notarized agreement but never files a response	True default — court awards what the petition requested, within limits

Path A: Uncontested judgment with a response on file

The couple has resolved everything in a written Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA) — property, debts, support, custody, parenting plan — and both have filed. You submit a judgment packet: Judgment (FL-180) with the MSA attached and incorporated, Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190), both FL-141s, FL-144 if waiving final disclosures, an FL-130 Appearance and Waiver if either spouse is waiving trial rights, and the required attachments for children (FL-341 custody, FL-342 child support with FL-191 Child Support Case Registry Form and FL-192 Notice of Rights, and an income withholding order FL-195 unless the parties stipulate otherwise) and for spousal support (FL-343, with an earnings assignment FL-435 unless stayed). No court appearance is required in most counties. The settlement negotiation guide covers getting to that agreement.

Path B: Default with a written agreement

Same as Path A except the respondent never filed a response and never paid the second filing fee. You first file a Request to Enter Default (FL-165), serving a copy on the respondent, and then submit the judgment packet with the MSA — but the respondent's signature on the agreement must be notarized, since they have not otherwise appeared. This is the cheapest route for genuinely agreed couples, and it is the path many "we did it ourselves" divorces follow. The respondent should understand that signing the agreement without a response means trusting that the judgment matches what they signed; they should read the FL-180 packet, not just the MSA.

Path C: True default

The respondent was served, 30 days passed, and nothing happened. You file FL-165 (with a declaration of the respondent's non-military status and a copy mailed to their last known address), then a Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution (FL-170), a Property Declaration (FL-160) if dividing property, a current FL-150 if asking for support, and the judgment packet. The court can only grant what the petition asked for, cannot award more than the community property division the law allows, and will scrutinize support requests. Defaults by publication get extra scrutiny. Some counties set a short "prove-up" hearing; many enter default judgments on the papers.

A default is not necessarily final. A respondent who moves promptly with a reasonable excuse can usually get a default set aside under Code Civ. Proc. § 473, and a judgment entered without the petitioner's complete disclosure is vulnerable under Family Code § 2122. Petitioners should proceed as if the respondent will eventually read the judgment.

Path D: Contested

If issues remain after disclosure and any temporary orders, the court manages the case toward trial: a case management or status conference, a mandatory settlement conference (most counties require one, with each side filing a settlement conference statement laying out their position on every issue), and then trial, which in family court is to the judge alone — California has no jury trials in dissolution. Most contested cases settle at or before the settlement conference; trial dates in busy counties are six to eighteen months after filing. Trial ends with a Statement of Decision and a judgment prepared by one side and approved by the other. Note that even when everything is contested, the parties can and should stipulate to the parts they agree on, narrowing trial to what is actually disputed. The mediation vs. litigation guide covers the off-ramps.

Bifurcating marital status. In any of these paths, once six months have run from service, either spouse can ask the court to terminate the marriage now and decide the remaining issues later (Family Code § 2337). Courts grant this routinely, with conditions protecting the other spouse's health insurance, pension, and tax position. It is how someone remarries or files single while a long property fight continues.

Step 8: The Six-Month Waiting Period and the Judgment Date

Under Family Code § 2339, the court cannot terminate your marital status until six months after the respondent was served or filed a response, whichever came first. Three things people misunderstand about it:

• It is a minimum, not a schedule. The six months run from service, not from filing, and not from when you finish the paperwork. If you submit a complete judgment packet in month two, the court enters the judgment but sets the termination of marital status on a future date six months and one day after service, printed on the FL-180. If you submit the packet in month nine, you are divorced when the clerk processes it — which, in busy counties, is itself weeks to a few months later.
• It does not delay the rest. Property division, support, and custody orders take effect when the judgment is entered, not on the status-termination date. Only your legal ability to remarry, and your filing status for federal taxes, waits for that date.
• Nothing happens automatically. The six months is a waiting period, not a countdown to a divorce. If no one submits a judgment packet, the case sits open indefinitely — and courts do eventually dismiss stale cases for lack of prosecution. A surprising number of Californians who "got divorced years ago" discover during a remarriage or an estate that no judgment was ever entered.

Because filing status for the year is determined on December 31, a December service date versus a January one, or a judgment entered December 30 versus January 2, changes a year's taxes. The divorce and taxes guide covers the timing rules.

Step 9: After Judgment — The Steps Most People Skip

The Notice of Entry of Judgment (FL-190) is the document that proves you are divorced. The clerk mails it to both sides; keep certified copies. Then:

• Retirement accounts need their own orders. A judgment dividing a 401(k) or pension does nothing until the plan receives a Qualified Domestic Relations Order. In California, the plan should also be formally joined as a party (Family Code § 2060, Forms FL-372, FL-371, FL-373, FL-374) — a step most other states do not require and one that is best done before judgment so the plan is bound by it. The QDRO guide walks through the process. Pensions divided "in kind" under the Brown time rule need a QDRO drafted with the coverture fraction stated precisely.
• Real estate transfers need a deed. An interspousal transfer deed or quitclaim recorded with the county, with the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report so the transfer is excluded from reassessment under Proposition 13. The quitclaim deed guide covers the mechanics and the mortgage problem the deed does not solve.
• Name restoration. If you asked for it in the petition or response, the judgment restores your former name and the FL-190 is your proof. If you forgot, file an Ex Parte Application for Restoration of Former Name (FL-395) at any time after judgment — no new case, no fee. The name change checklist covers everything downstream.
• Support collection. Child support orders include an income withholding order by default; the Department of Child Support Services can enforce any support order for free if you open a case. The paying child support guide and the enforcement guide cover both sides.
• Everything else — beneficiaries, insurance, estate plan, credit — is on the post-divorce checklist.

What It Costs and How Long It Takes

	Summary dissolution	Uncontested / default with agreement	Contested
Court fees	One $435 fee	$435 (petitioner) + $435 (respondent, if responding)	Same, plus motion fees (about $60–$90 each)
Service	None	$0 (acknowledgment) to $75–$150 (process server)	Same; publication $200–$1,000+
Professional help	Self-help center / facilitator, free	Document preparer ($500–$1,500) or limited-scope attorney; private mediator ($3,000–$8,000 split)	Attorneys billed hourly; typical contested totals $15,000–$50,000+ per side, far more with experts or a custody evaluation
Earliest judgment	6 months from filing	6 months + 1 day from service, if packet is in	Typically 12–24 months

Fee waivers eliminate the court fees for those who qualify. Every superior court has a free Self-Help Center, and every county has a Family Law Facilitator (Family Code § 10002) who can help with child support, spousal support, and health insurance forms at no charge. Neither can represent you or give strategic advice, but both can tell you whether your packet is complete before you file it — which is worth hours of your life.

The Rejection List: Why Judgment Packets Come Back

Clerks review every judgment packet before a judge sees it, and reject a large share of self-prepared ones. The usual reasons:

• Missing FL-141 for either spouse (or no FL-165 default where the respondent never appeared)
• FL-150 more than 90 days old, or missing when support is at issue
• Agreement signatures not notarized in a default-with-agreement case
• Superseded form revisions
• Missing FL-191, FL-192, or FL-195 in a case with child support, or FL-435 in a case with spousal support
• Child support that departs from guideline without the required findings (Family Code § 4065) — the judgment must state the guideline amount and why the parties agreed to something different
• Property not actually divided — an MSA that lists assets but does not say who gets each one, or omits an asset listed on FL-142
• Judgment forms inconsistent with the petition in a true default (asking for more than was pleaded)
• Missing proof that the respondent was served with the default request

Each rejection adds weeks. Have the self-help center review the packet first, and use the court's own judgment checklist where your county publishes one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I file for divorce in California if my spouse lives in another state or country? Yes, if you meet the residency requirement. The court can end the marriage based on your residence alone. Its power to divide property and order support against a spouse who has never lived in California or been served here is more limited; see the international divorce guide for the jurisdiction rules.

Do I need a lawyer to file for divorce in California? No. California's forms and self-help resources are built for self-represented litigants, and a large share of California divorces are completed without attorneys. The cases where a lawyer or at least a limited-scope consultation pays for itself are those with a pension, a business, a house with disputed separate-property contributions, a long marriage with support at stake, or a custody dispute. Many attorneys will review an agreement or a judgment packet for a flat fee without taking the whole case.

What happens if my spouse refuses to sign anything? You do not need your spouse's signature or cooperation to get divorced. Serve the petition; if they do not respond in 30 days, proceed by default. If they respond but will not settle, the court decides the contested issues at trial. What a spouse cannot do is stop the divorce.

Does the six-month waiting period start when I file? No — it starts when your spouse is served (or files a response, if earlier). Serving promptly after filing is the single easiest way to shorten the case.

Can we use one lawyer? One attorney cannot represent both spouses. One spouse can hire an attorney who drafts the agreement, with the other spouse unrepresented or consulting their own attorney for review. A neutral mediator can work with both spouses but represents neither, and most mediators will insist that each spouse at least have an independent attorney review the final agreement.

We agree on everything. What is the fastest, cheapest route? If you qualify for summary dissolution, that. If not: petition and summons, service by notice and acknowledgment, both preliminary disclosures within the first 60 days, a marital settlement agreement, and a default-with-agreement judgment packet (notarized) submitted well before month six so the clerk's processing time overlaps with the waiting period. Done correctly, you are divorced on day 183.

I filed years ago and never finished. Am I divorced? Not unless a judgment was entered. Check your case online or at the clerk's office. If the case is still open, you can usually complete it with updated disclosures; if it was dismissed for lack of prosecution, you file again.

How Divorce Navigator Helps

The California process is mostly a paperwork sequence, and the paperwork is mostly financial: the FL-142 schedule of every asset and debt, the FL-150 that gets filed three or four times, and a settlement agreement that has to assign every item on the schedule to someone with a defensible value.

Divorce Navigator builds the asset and debt inventory that maps onto FL-142, keeps statements, tax returns, and pay stubs organized in a secure data room so each FL-150 refresh takes minutes, and models community property splits with after-tax values and spousal support step-downs so the agreement you attach to FL-180 reflects what the division is actually worth — not just equal on paper.

Start by organizing your finances and modeling your scenarios before you sit down with the disclosure forms — the inventory you build once becomes the disclosure, the settlement, and the judgment.

Related Resources

• Divorce in California: Laws, Process, and What You Need to Know — community property, spousal support, child support, and custody rules
• Uncontested vs. Contested Divorce — which path fits your case and what each costs
• Divorce Financial Affidavit Walkthrough — completing the FL-150 accurately
• Financial Document Gathering Checklist — what to collect before the disclosure deadline
• Divorce Asset Inventory Template — the inventory that becomes your FL-142
• Temporary Orders in Divorce — Requests for Order and why they matter
• Divorce with Children — custody mediation and best-interest factors
• Divorce and Domestic Violence — restraining orders and their effect on custody and support
• Legal Separation vs. Divorce — the residency bridge and when separation makes sense
• How Long Does a Divorce Take? — realistic timelines by case type
• QDRO Guide — dividing retirement accounts after judgment
• Quitclaim Deed in Divorce — transferring the house
• Post-Divorce Checklist — everything after the FL-190 arrives
• State-Specific Divorce Guides — rules in other states

Browse all of our divorce guides and checklists for more resources.

Take the Next Step

A California divorce is won on sequence and completeness: serve promptly, disclose fully, and submit a judgment packet the clerk cannot reject. Divorce Navigator gives you the organized financial record every one of those forms is built from, and the modeled scenarios to make sure the agreement you file is one you understand.

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