California Dissolution
Twelve gates before anything else.
California built a real shortcut — summary dissolution — and the honest way to route a case is to screen the twelve statutory conditions FIRST. Fit them all and the joint petition is commonly the shortest path; miss one and the regular lane opens with the blocker named. Either spouse can revoke a summary case before judgment; the six-month clock applies either way.
Before anything else
Is anyone in danger — or is safety a concern in this separation?
This answer is never saved. DVPA protection is civil, same-day available, and does not wait for a divorce case.
Authority locked — retrieved from the hash-pinned corpus
Routing, not ruling. This qualifier organizes which official path commonly fits the facts you enter — it never determines that a court will enter a judgment, and the dollar gates carry Judicial-Council-adjusted amounts you verify in the official FL-810 booklet. Answers stay on this device. Legal information, not legal advice.