A General overview of the divorce process in California:.

No two divorces are the same. However, most cases fall into specific phases. Not all phases apply to every case. Whether your case may fall into a certain phase depends on the size of the marital estate and the complexity of the issues, including whether children are involved. You may go through the phases very quickly-  or you may be fighting over them in Court or out of Court for a long time.

THE INITIAL FILING FOR DIVORCE

Divorce  begins when one party makes a decision to go forward and files a Petition for  Dissolution (or legal separation or nullity) on Judicial Council Form No. 1281.  The other party answers with a document called a Response on Judicial Council Form No. 1282. Both documents request certain statistical information and a  specification of the relief that the parties want from the court. Although much of the information may seem simple, some of the required information , such as “the date of separation”, can, in many cases, require some fairly sophisticated  legal analysis and have a serious impact on the property division in the case

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

The next phase may include getting Court orders or written agreements between the parties which are temporary in nature to stabilize the situation during the ongoing divorce process. It is common to file legal documents called an “order to show cause“(OSC) seeking temporary support, custody orders and temporary restraining  orders.  These orders or agreements are necessary to be certain that neither  party takes any actions that will adversely affect the other or the property of the parties from the marriage during the  divorce process. They also make clear the parties' custodial responsibilities for the children,  any child or spousal support responsibilities, etc. Hopefully, they will establish who pays what  bills, whether there is reimbursement for them, etc. Failing to establish these temporary ground rules in the beginning  can tremendously prejudice one of the parties down the line and can also make it  much more difficult and expensive to resolve the case.

WHAT IS “DISCOVERY”?

During the discovery phase, both parties need to ascertain what assets and obligations exist, whether they are community or separate property, their values, the  income they will produce, and any other claims or allegations which are likely  to have an impact on the division of community property, custody of children, or  support obligations. “Discovery” allows, through legal documents served on the other party, the opportunity for each party to “discover” information from the other regarding the divorce.

The discovery phase normally begins with  the exchange of a legal form titled  “Preliminary Declarations of Disclosure.”. In  some cases, the Declarations of Disclosure alone may be adequate. In most cases however, some additional discovery is required.

Discovery serves several legal purposes. They are:  To make certain that you know all of the  community property that is to be divided. - To verify or disprove  the other party's separate property claims. - To ascertain the  value of community property items. - To ascertain the existence, nature and amount of obligations. - To discover facts relevant to  the issue of the amount and duration of spousal support. -To  permit you to value complex assets such as businesses, retirement plans, stock  options, and the like. - To any other issues that may arise in a  divorce case.

Discovery is very important when there is a likelihood that one of the spouses may have hidden or mischaracterized  assets. Also, if your  spouse is seeking long-term spousal support, you may want to do some discovery  as to the nature of his or her claims, prospects for future employment,  verification of living expenses, etc.

WHAT ABOUT TRYING TO NEGOTIATE?:

Negotiation or settlement is always possible with two parties who are willing to negotiate and compromise. The problem is usually that only one person is willing to come to the table to try to work things out. However, once the parties feel they have enough information to settle the property and support issues of their case, the negotiation phase can begin. There is no "standard"  way that this occurs. Any method is possible. Many times, it will begin with exchanges of written  settlement offers in the form of letters which may attempt to resolve individual  issues or achieve a global settlement. The letters attempt to resolve or narrow  the issues, until, hopefully, a total agreement is reached.

The parties can also try a face-to-face meeting. There should be a list of issues to be discussed and  a goal to resolve as many of them as possible. Issues that are resolved should be reduced to writing as a Stipulation and Order. This should be drafted by an experienced attorney. This is an important and binding legal document which should not be trusted to a “paralegal”.

There is no magic formula for settling a family law  case. It varies with the complexity of the case, the personalities of the  parties, the relationship of the attorneys and the general circumstances of the  case.

PREPARING FOR TRIAL:

Trial preparation is ongoing task throughout the divorce process. It intensifies greatly as the actual trial date gets closer. Unfortunately, if you're the client, the costs will grow rapidly. If an attorney is to be well prepared, it will take several  hours of preparation for each hour at trial. In addition, many courts want  pretrial statements or trial briefs which provide evidentiary road maps and  legal argument for the court to follow during the trial. All in all, a lot of attorney time goes into trial preparation. Many cases that are going to settle wait until the courthouse steps to do so. By that time, however, the attorney fees will already be pretty high due to all the time involved.

TRIAL: 

If attempts at settlement fail, then unresolved issues are submitted to a family law judge for resolution. This is done in a contested trial in which the rules of civil procedure and the rules of evidence will be followed. The rules of evidence determines what facts the court can  consider.

It is a very bad idea to represent yourself,  especially against an experienced family law attorney. You will be at a serious disadvantage on several counts, especially with the rules of evidence. Non-attorneys in family law courts can find themselves at an extreme disadvantage when forced to comply with the unknown concept of the law of evidence. Lawyers spend years mastering the  the rules of evidence.

If you intend to represent yourself at a trial or  motion, you should be certain to spend some time watching contested trials in  court to try to get an understanding of what goes on as possible. You need to understand the procedures that the court will be following. Don’t think you will just walk in and tell your story or that the Judge will be nice to you because you do not have an attorney. When you represent yourself, you are expected to act just like an attorney and abide by all the same rules.

You've heard the old adage that "an attorney representing  him/herself has a fool for a client." The same holds true for pro per litigants.