Long-term relationships rarely end overnight. Divorces are often the result of years of problems and frustrations that you can no longer work through. You may feel as if you’ve spent enough time in this relationship and are hoping for an efficient divorce process.
While divorce can be complicated depending on the nature of your case, courts are sometimes able to issue a summary dissolution for less complicated cases. Couples that meet all the specific criteria may be eligible to streamline the process.
Assuming you’ve lived in your county of residence for three months and in California for six months and have been married for less than five years, you can look further at the criteria. Receiving a summary dissolution is then possible and some of the criteria includes:
- Not owning any property together. Excluding motor vehicles, you must not rent or own any land or buildings, other than your current residence. Still, you must not have a lease longer than one year or rent-to-own.
- Not making a big purchase together. If you’ve acquired $6,000 in debt or $45,000 in property since your wedding day, you may not have summary dissolution.
- Agreeing on almost everything. California law says that you and your spouse must waive your rights to spousal support and completely agree on how to split all your property.
- Having no children together. This includes children you or your spouse had before the marriage, adopted, or one of you is currently pregnant with.
You must also fill out several pieces of paperwork for a court to finalize a summary dissolution. These documents carry significant consequences on your future after divorce and want to make sure they’re completed correctly.
Quicker doesn’t always mean better
While summary dissolutions are great for some people, they’re not for everyone. A couple looking to end a short-term marriage with little-to-no marital property and no children may be good candidates. Even then, the courts will factor in each spouse’s separate property in to the case. Most couples own some sort of property or have children together that would eliminate them as summary dissolution candidates. Some couplings may not be okay with forfeiting their right to alimony either.
While you may wish to complete the divorce process quickly, you should also want to ensure that you receive everything that you can in your divorce. Rushing through the divorce process could make your post-divorce life more difficult. It’s sometimes more beneficial for you to go through the whole divorce process than try to expedite it.
