What If Spouse Won’t Agree To Divorce | Santa Clarita

Hi! My name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist. I’m a licensed and bonded legal document preparation assistant that specialize only in divorce.

Today we are talking about and answering the question of what happens if my wife doesn’t want to give me a divorce.

So, if your spouse doesn’t want to cooperate, there is a way to still work on the divorce process and I’m going to use the California Court’s website to answer this question because in their Frequently Asked Questions here, they have responded to this question – so instead of just me giving you what I think, I’m going to refer you to into the court’s website as they answered the question here for.

So the question here is ‘What if my spouse or domestic partner does not want to give me a divorce?’.

And the answer is: In California, it is not necessary for both spouses or domestic partners to agree to the divorce. Either spouse or domestic partner can decide and their marriage and partnership is not necessary for the other spouse to agree or give you a divorce.

The spouse or domestic partner who does not want to get divorced cannot stop the process by refusing to participate in the case. If she did not have to sign anything to agree to the divorce, if your spouse or domestic partner does not participate in the divorce case, you’ll still be able to get a default judgment and the divorce will go through.

So, sometimes when I’m preparing uncontested divorce cases, one of the parties that I may be assisting will ask: “Well Tim, she’s not going to fill it out any of the paperwork, she’s not going to respond and she honestly doesn’t care one way or the other and I said: “That’s fine, there’s nothing the spouse can do to stop you from getting divorced”. As this court says here, they can’t stop it even if they don’t participate. It’s called a default judgment.

I’ve done a video on what it takes to get a default judgment and that happens all the time. Generally, courts will approve those if there’s an unequal division of assets and debts. There might be a reason for the court to call you in and have a couple of questions for you. But if your spouse doesn’t want to respond and they don’t want to participate, you can get what’s called a default judgment.

Again, my name is Tim Blankenship, owner of SCV Legal Doc Assist, licensed and bonded legal document preparation service, specializing in the divorce process.