Bifurcation – Ending Marital Status Early

Some divorces take years to resolve property, support and custody. Bifurcation lets the court separate the question of marital status from everything else and restore each spouse to single status while the remaining issues continue.

California Code Family Code § 2337 and California Rules of Court, rule 5.390, govern the procedure. The six-month waiting period from service of the petition under California Code Family Code § 2339 still applies, and the preliminary declarations of disclosure must have been served. Because ending the marriage early can affect the other spouse’s rights, the court may impose conditions: maintaining health insurance or paying for comparable coverage, protecting the other spouse’s interest in retirement and survivor benefits, indemnifying for tax consequences, and preserving probate rights until the judgment on the remaining issues is entered.

Bifurcation is common when one spouse wants to remarry, when tax filing status matters, or when the marriage itself is over but the financial issues are complex. It is not a shortcut around those issues. The conditions the court attaches exist precisely so that the spouse who did not ask for an early termination is not worse off because of it.