What is your date of marriage and date of separation in California divorce, and why are these critical dates?

On the Family Law Dissolution Petition, you have to state your date of marriage and date of separation. These can be critical issues, even if it doesn’t seem so at a passing glance.

The date of marriage is generally not the big issue, as the date is not only commonly known by the couple as their anniversary, but it’s recorded on the publicly-recorded marriage certificate.

The date of separation is trickier. This is the date that you and your spouse physically separated and had the intent to “separate and live forever apart.” If you continued to live in the same house, this can be a difficult date to pinpoint. But what you must understand is that this is generally not a big deal because both parties frequently agree on the date of separation (I think it’s the day when you both knew/decided it was forever and finally over).

But it CAN be a big deal in certain situations. For example, say one party wins the lottery, and then says that the date of separation was before the win (thus making it the winner’s separate property as opposed to be divided equally between the couple). In that case, the issue of the date of separation can be separately litigated in a trial. The court will look at the physical separation of the parties – did they live apart, for example – as well as the intent of the parties and the way they “held themselves out” to others. This involves looking at what others though, such as their friends and family. Did they think they were together or separated? Finally, the court has a pretty strong presumption that the later date is the date of separation.

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