Five Ways Your Spouse Might Be Delaying Your Divorce

When a divorce is dragging on for far longer than it should, we often look to whether one spouse might have a motive for making it so. Usually, divorces that can’t be resolved in a timely fashion are caused in part by one spouse’s refusal to accept that divorce is happening and move on. In other circumstances, a spouse may be delaying the divorce in order to obtain even more money from the divorce settlement. Particularly common in high net worth divorces, an experienced Irvine divorce attorney can help you determine whether your former spouse is delaying your divorce. 

Reasons Why Your Spouse May Be Delaying Your Divorce

There are several reasons why your spouse might be delaying a divorce. The most common reason is often when one spouse simply refuses to accept that the marriage is over, and will do anything to keep it going for just a little while longer. In other instances, a spouse might be acting out of bitterness, anger and a willingness to put their spouse through months and even years of suffering to get back at them. Finally, the most likely reason your spouse might be trying to delay your divorce is because they’re playing financial games. Whether they’re fighting tooth and nail to leave you with nothing, going out of their way to hide assets or simply trying to run up your bill, your Irvine divorce attorney can help you navigate the situation and bring your divorce to a close once and for all.

Five Ways Your Spouse Could Slow the Divorce Process

While there are a variety of strategies that people use to prolog divorce, these are the five most common:

• Abusing the Discovery Process: It’s normal for both slides to ask for evidence during discovery, but when one side wants to drag the divorce on they may begin taking longer to furnish the evidence and/or may make outrageous requests that take very long to complete. 
• Asking for a Continuance: Your spouse may tell a judge that they did not have enough time to prepare for a hearing and request a new date. 
• Changing Their Mind: Oftentimes, couples will separate and make temporary arrangements regarding who gets to stay in the house, or care for the children, while the terms of the divorce are being worked out. When a spouse wants to delay a divorce, they may suddenly decide to go back on their word. 
• Making False Accusations: When a spouse really wants to cause trouble in a divorce proceeding, they will often lodge a false accusation against the other spouse in order to trigger an investigation into that allegation. This type of tactic would complicate both the divorce and any impending child custody hearing ongoing.
• Hiding Assets: When a spouse wants to complicate the divorce proceedings and ensure you don’t get a full picture of what’s at stake, they will often employ tactics like hiding assets, which would require you to file motions in order to get the information.

Speak with an Irvine Divorce Attorney Today

It’s not unusual for a spouse to delay their divorce when there is money or emotional baggage in the middle. Don’t fall victim to this dubious practice – talk to an Irvine divorce attorney at our firm for help. Contact us today.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a spouse delay a divorce?

Through a recognizable set of tactics: avoiding service, filing repeated requests for extensions, producing financial records slowly or incompletely, retaining and then replacing experts, seeking continuances of hearings, and filing motions that generate work without advancing anything. None of these prevents the divorce, since California requires no consent from the responding spouse. What they do is increase cost and postpone resolution, which is often the actual objective.

What can be done about a spouse avoiding service?

Several things. Substituted service can be accomplished by leaving the papers with a competent adult at the residence or workplace and mailing a copy. A professional process server or a licensed investigator can locate an evading spouse. Where the whereabouts are genuinely unknown after documented diligent efforts, a court can authorize service by publication or posting. Avoiding service delays the start but not the outcome, and the effort spent avoiding it rarely helps that spouse’s position.

How is slow or incomplete document production addressed?

With motions and third-party subpoenas rather than more letters. A motion to compel with a request for monetary sanctions puts a court deadline on the production. Subpoenas to banks, brokerages, employers, and accountants obtain the records without the party’s cooperation at all, which is frequently faster than litigating over their production. Where the withholding concerns an undisclosed asset, the fiduciary duty between spouses exposes that spouse to losing their share of it entirely.

Are there consequences for a spouse who delays deliberately?

Yes, and they are financial. California allows fee awards against a party whose conduct frustrates the policy of promoting settlement and reducing the cost of litigation, and sanctions are available for discovery abuse independently. Courts also become measurably less receptive to a party whose pattern of conduct is on the record. Building that record, documenting each missed deadline and each unnecessary continuance, is what converts frustration into a remedy.