In order for a California court to have jurisdiction over your divorce you must be a California resident for at least six months immediately prior to filing an action for dissolution.

Further, you must reside in the county in which you intend to file for at least three months immediately prior to filing. It is not necessary for your spouse to reside in California but it is certainly less complicated if they do.

If your dissolution will involve minor children then California must have custodial jurisdiction over the children in order to resolve child custody disputes.

Custody jurisdiction is generally established when the children have lived in the state for the six months prior to dissolution. If there are any interstate custody issues presented by your case there may be jurisdictional problems that must be addressed and you should speak to an attorney.

Once jurisdiction is established, a California court has the power to divide all of the community property that has been acquired. The court may also divide all jointly titled separate property at the request of either party.

Any community assets not distributed at divorce may be subject to future litigation. If an asset is discovered after a final judgment has been entered, a party may make a motion to the court to distribute such asset.

There is currently a disagreement among the courts as to whether a divorce decree, which provides all claims have been settled, will bar such a motion. However, courts are willing to entertain such arguments when there is evidence of intentional fraud or excusable neglect.

To avoid any such difficulties, it is important to be as thorough as possible when you are gathering information regarding your community assets, and to be completely honest and forthright with your attorney as you work together to complete the dissolution process.