Bifurcation Of A Divorce Case

**buntum** · 01-12-2008, 04:07 PM

my friend and I want to get married but he is still married. his wife was the one who filed for divorce almost two years ago. she has a lawyer, we don't have a lawyer as we cannot afford it. so we suggested to work with a mediator but she would show up at meetings and didn't work on anything and it took month until she would "find time" to go again. we now filed a petition for bifurcation as we didn't achieve anything and court gave us a court date for next week monday. yesterday(friday) eve we had a message of her lawyer on the answering machine and he said that the forms were not filed correctly as we sent them to the wife and not to him (we didn't know that she still uses the lawyer). he said he wants a continuance/postpone the court date and if we don't agree then he would ask court for sanctions as it was filed incorrectly. what should we do? can we file a correct bifurcation on monday? we rather do that and have another court date in four weeks than wait for the continuance date which might be in two months or so. his and wifes plan is probably to postpone the date forever. is there anything else we might have to consider? can he do anything we should be prepared for? help and advice is very much appreciated.
State is CALIFORNIA

**lwpat** · 01-13-2008, 09:38 AM

Since you have a court date on Monday, I would show up. Since you are pro se it is extremely unlikely that the court is going to sanction you, especially since you thought the attorney was no longer involved. There is no reason I can see not to proceed with the hearing. The attorney can ask for a continuance and it will be up to the judge. Your argument is that she is deliberately wasting the courts time by refusing to cooperate.

**buntum** · 01-14-2008, 08:11 AM

Thank you for your advice. We will try to proceed with the hearing and convince the judge today. Maybe a miracle happens. If the lawyer gets a continuance - do you know if he can get another one after that? And another one etc. Is that possible in a bifurcation case? Thought bifurcation is for getting divorced quickly because the rest takes so long?
Otherwise it would be like a normal divorce trial where you can postpone the hearings x times. Would be interesting to know how that works...thanks.

**buntum** · 01-15-2008, 01:36 AM

Date got continued as it is the law the judge said....I would like to know if a bifurcation date can be continued again...and again...or if we can be sure that bifurcation will be granted next time (I heard 98% get granted). Thanks.