How long does it really take to finalise a divorce? Is it six weeks, six months, or six years?
The Inconvenient Truth: The Clock Starts When the Stress Ends
If you’re asking this question, you’ve probably already hit peak emotional exhaustion. You’re mentally checked out, you just want to sign the papers, and you’re ready to start living your own life again. I get it. Every single client who sits across from my desk has that same weary look in their eyes. They want a neat, precise answer, like a train schedule.
Here’s the controversial truth: the time it takes to finalise a divorce has almost nothing to do with the court’s calendar and everything to do with you and your soon-to-be ex. That feeling of being stuck? It’s usually self-imposed, though the law certainly doesn’t help with its mandatory waiting periods.
The most honest, practical baseline for how long does it take to finalise a divorce in the US? Eight to eighteen months. Anything faster is a miracle; anything slower is usually a financial disaster. That’s the main promise. Now let’s talk about the variables.
Uncontested Divorce: The Path of Least Resistance?
This is the holy grail. An uncontested divorce means you two have already agreed on every single issue: the kids, the house, the retirement accounts, the cat. You’ve either hammered it out yourselves or through intensive mediation before filing. You’re done arguing.
In this scenario, your timeline is almost completely determined by your state’s minimum requirements. Think of it as a mandatory holding period.
- California: Six months and one day. The paperwork gets filed, the countdown starts. Done deal.
- Texas: A cooling-off period of 60 days. Quick!
- New York: There’s no statutory waiting period, but the judicial process still takes several weeks or months to process everything.
An uncontested divorce, including all the necessary prep work, usually takes three to six months. Why the three-month buffer? Because getting all your financial documents in order—tax returns, bank statements, appraisal reports—takes time, and the courts are not Amazon Prime. They have backlogs. Huge backlogs. It is an administrative nightmare, truly.
The Contested Clock: When You Just Can’t Agree
The moment you tell your lawyer, “We disagree on the value of the business” or “I won’t let her move with the kids,” you’ve signed up for a contested divorce. Welcome to the slow lane. This is where most of the time—and most of the money, gosh—is spent.
Discovery: Opening Up the Financial Hood
The first major phase is Discovery. This is the formal, legal exchange of information. You send them requests for documents (Interrogatories), and they send you requests. This period can easily last four to six months, especially if one side is stalling, or the assets are complex. It is truly redundant, but necessary.
My advice: be ready. Having three years of tax returns and all investment statements ready on Day 1 will save you weeks. I mean, literally. It really will.
Mediation and Settlement: The Escape Hatch
If your case is still contested after discovery, the court will almost certainly order you into mediation. This is a mandatory, structured negotiation with a neutral professional. Mediation, if successful, is your fastest escape route. You can resolve an 18-month dispute in a single eight-hour day. Honestly, it’s a game-changer.
If mediation fails, then you head toward trial. And this, folks, is where the clock stops making sense. Scheduling a contested trial—especially one involving children or complex estates—can mean waiting six to twelve months just for a spot on the judge’s docket.
The Human Element: Small Stuff That Becomes Big Stuff
You can control your cooperation, but you can’t control the personalities involved.
- The High-Conflict Personality: If your spouse is just difficult, someone who believes winning is more important than moving on, they will use every legal tactic to drag things out. This is why I always tell people to pick their battles. Is the antique lamp really worth another $10,000 in legal fees? Probably not.
- The Tangential Aside: I once had a case where the entire divorce was delayed by two months because the husband insisted on calculating the value of a stamp collection, and the appraiser—who, by the way, was on vacation for two weeks—needed to fly across state lines to do it. Just… crazy.
- The Kids are Always the Priority: If custody is contested, the court will appoint an attorney for the children or order a full-blown custody evaluation. These evaluations often require interviews, home visits, and reports that take three to five months to complete. It’s frustrating, but it’s essential for protecting the children, which is, obviously, the right thing to do.
Ultimately, while the average timeframe is under a year, remember this: the speed of your divorce is inversely proportional to your need to be right. The faster you can accept that compromise is cheaper and quicker, the sooner you’ll get that final decree. That’s the key takeaway. The goal is not to win the divorce, but to finish it.
Note to self: Check if the client’s jurisdiction is an “equitable distribution” state—this can add major time to property division. Editing Note: The most honest, practical baseline for how long does it take to finalise a divorce in the US? Eight to eighteen months. is a better fit.