“My Divorce Is Taking A Long Time. Can I Get Divorced Now And Deal With The Property Issues Later?”
In California, you can bring a motion for what is termed a “bifurcation of status.” What this means is that you can ask the judge to do the actual divorce portion of your case before the rest. The judge will look at the circumstances of the case and determine if this is appropriate.
There are many factors that the judge will look at such as if this will affect the health insurance of the other spouse and whether or not there is any harm to the other spouse from an early termination of marital status. If there are no bad effects, then the dissolution will be granted. If there are some bad effects, but they can be taken care of by court orders (such as maintaining separate health insurance or separating retirement accounts, etc.) the court will make those orders and grant the dissolution. In some cases, however, even court orders cannot take away the harm from the other spouse, and in those cases the dissolution will be denied and can only be granted at the final trial.
