FAQ
California has a mandatory six-month waiting period from the date your spouse is served with divorce papers until the divorce can be finalized. In practice, most uncontested divorces take between six and nine months. Contested divorces — those involving disputes over property, custody, or support — typically take twelve to eighteen months, and complex cases can stretch past two years. The biggest factors affecting timeline are whether you and your spouse agree on the terms, how quickly paperwork gets filed, and how backed up your county's family court is.
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