What Happens After Filing for Divorce in California

For Traditional Cases, the Clock Starts at Service or an Earlier Appearance

Filing your petition (Form FL-100) with the court clerk is the administrative step that opens your case. But it doesn't start the six-month waiting period or, by itself, give the court jurisdiction over your spouse. The relevant trigger is formal service of the filed copies or your spouse's earlier general appearance.

The distinction matters more than most people realize. If you file on March 1 but don't serve your spouse until April 15, the earliest your divorce can be finalized is October 16 — six months and one day from the service date, not the filing date. Every week you delay service pushes back your earliest possible termination date by exactly that much.

The one exception: if you filed a joint petition (Form FL-700 under SB 1427), the waiting period starts on the filing date because co-filing counts as automatic service.

Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders Kick In Immediately

Page two of the Summons (Form FL-110) contains Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders — ATROs — that bind the petitioner from the filing date and the respondent from the moment they're served. These aren't optional.

ATROs prevent both spouses from:

• Transferring, hiding, selling, or encumbering any property (community or separate) outside the ordinary course of business
• Changing beneficiaries on insurance policies, retirement accounts, or other non-probate transfers
• Removing minor children from California without written consent or a court order
• Canceling or modifying health insurance coverage for either spouse or children

Violating ATROs has real consequences. The court can sanction a spouse, hold them in contempt, and adjust the property division to account for the breach. These orders stay in place until the divorce is finalized or the court modifies them.

You Have 60 Days to Serve Financial Disclosures

Within 60 days of filing your petition, you must prepare and serve your preliminary financial disclosures on your spouse. This isn't a suggestion — it's mandatory under Family Code Section 2104, and it cannot be waived by agreement.

Your disclosure package includes:

• Form FL-140 — Declaration of Disclosure (cover sheet, signed under penalty of perjury)
• Form FL-150 — Income and Expense Declaration (attach two months of pay stubs and two years of tax returns)
• Form FL-142 — Schedule of Assets and Debts (list every bank account, retirement plan, property, vehicle, and debt)

Here's the privacy rule that confuses people: the FL-150 gets filed with the court (it's a public record), but the FL-142 schedule of assets is served on your spouse only — you do not file it with the court. This protects your detailed financial information from becoming part of the public case file.

After you've served these documents, file Form FL-141 (Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure) with the court to prove you completed this step. Your spouse must do the same once they serve their disclosures on you.

Your Spouse Has 30 Days to Respond

Once your spouse is served with the petition and summons, they have 30 calendar days to file a Response (Form FL-120) and pay the $435 filing fee.

What happens during those 30 days depends on your spouse's intentions:

If they file a Response: Your case is officially an active two-party proceeding. Both of you will complete financial disclosures, negotiate terms, and work toward either a settlement or a trial. This is the standard uncontested or contested path.

If they don't respond within 30 days: You can request a default. After the 30-day window closes, you file a Request to Enter Default (Form FL-165) and proceed toward a judgment based on what you asked for in your original petition. If your spouse signed a Marital Settlement Agreement despite not filing a response, that's a "default with agreement" — the most common uncontested path in California.

If they're being evasive: You still have options. Substituted service (leaving papers with a household member plus mailing a copy) or, in extreme cases, service by publication in a newspaper. These alternative methods require additional steps and may extend your timeline.

Choosing Your Path Forward

By the time your spouse's response window closes, your case will have settled into one of five tracks:

1. Joint petition — you filed the FL-700 together, service was automatic, and you're working toward a stipulated judgment
2. Uncontested with response — your spouse filed the FL-120, you both agree on terms, and you're assembling a consent judgment package
3. Default with agreement — your spouse didn't file a response but signed a Marital Settlement Agreement, so you file for default with the MSA attached
4. Default without agreement (true default) — your spouse didn't respond and won't cooperate, so you proceed to judgment based on your petition's requests
5. Contested — your spouse filed a response and disagrees on key issues, pushing the case toward mediation, settlement conferences, or trial

The first four tracks cannot terminate marital status before six months and one day from the applicable start date (filing for a joint petition, service or an earlier general appearance for a traditional case). A contested case typically takes 12 to 36 months.

What to Do During the Waiting Period

California's mandatory six-month waiting period isn't dead time. It's your window to finalize everything the judge will need to sign off on the judgment:

• Complete financial disclosures (both sides)
• Draft and negotiate your Marital Settlement Agreement covering property division, debt allocation, custody, child support, and spousal support
• Gather required documentation for your judgment package — you'll need Forms FL-130, FL-170, FL-180, and all applicable attachments
• Consider whether to waive final disclosures — both parties can agree to skip the final round by signing Form FL-144, but only if preliminary disclosures are complete

You can submit your judgment package before the six-month mark. The judge may review and sign it early, but the legal termination of your marriage won't take effect until six months and one day from service or an earlier general appearance (or the filing date for joint petitions).

Keeping Everything on Track

The biggest risk in the post-filing phase isn't a hostile spouse — it's letting administrative deadlines slip. Missing your 60-day disclosure window, forgetting to file your FL-141 proof of service, or letting months pass before serving your spouse are the most common reasons California divorces stall.

The California Divorce Filing Process Guide includes deadline trackers and a judgment assembly checklist that maps every post-filing step to its statutory deadline, so nothing falls through the cracks between filing and finalization.

See more California guides →