Walk It Through: The Split
Irreconcilable differences, six months from service, and the community estate divided equally.
A pharmacist, married for years with one child, decides the marriage is over and asks what it takes to file.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One marriage and one house. Separate property, child support, and same sex marriage dissolution are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Community propertyProperty acquired by a married person during the marriage while living in California, which the court divides equally unless the parties agree otherwise.
- Irreconcilable differencesDifferences that have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage, one of two grounds for dissolution.
- Marriage of long durationA marriage of 10 years or more, from marriage to separation, over which the court keeps jurisdiction over support indefinitely.