First things first, My intent is to get a lawyer to protect myself, but I'm trying to get outside (non-biased) advise on the best way going forward.
I'm a male from San Diego, CA. My wife, who I've been informally separated from for 7 years(married 12), lives in Missouri. We've only spoke on the phone 2-3 times, haven't seen her in 6 years. Last time we talked was maybe 2 years ago. We only spent maybe 2-3 years actually living together, very on and off. No kids from our marriage, she has a son from another relationship prior to who lives with his father. She supposedly "remarried" a couple years ago, but since we're technically still married...Knowing her she probably never told her new husband, but that's not my concern.
We have no joint accounts or property, filed taxes separately, have our own accounts and vehicles. I paid off all the old joint account bad dept/collections we had and my credit is now sparkling and I'd like to keep it that way. We lived separate lives for the past 6-7 years and everything has been kept completely separate, obviously the law may take a different view or she might flip-flop.
Separation reason was drugs and alcohol on her part. Last I heard she was also up on felony charges for Meth distribution as of March 2012. Not sure where that stands now or if she's even in jail.
Why have I waited this long? Because I'm stupid, no other excuses. Regardless, right now my assets are pretty meager, less than 15k all together. But that will change quite a bit over the next 3-5 years. I need to get this done now and I'd like to prevent any nasty long term nonsense like life-long alimony for a woman I barely lived with. I feel mildly confident we can reach a separation agreement that would prevent me from having to pay any alimony (especially long-term) or lose assets that I've build while we were informally separated. But my understanding of CA law is that you can no longer do a joint dissolution after 5 years, and that after that your stuck with the communal nonsense where everything is 50-50 and they hand out alimony after 10 years like it's hotcakes.
Can long-term marriages financial situations in CA still be handled with a separation agreement, or is the state judge required to split things up equally? If not, I'd rather keep California out of handling asset distribution which would undoubtedly favor her since she's not as financially well off. I'm wondering if I can legally file in Missouri since she's a resident? The laws I've read online aren't entirely clear, they state that one of the couple need to be a resident; but not whether the out of state party can file in that state.
Any advise is welcome.
I'm a male from San Diego, CA. My wife, who I've been informally separated from for 7 years(married 12), lives in Missouri. We've only spoke on the phone 2-3 times, haven't seen her in 6 years. Last time we talked was maybe 2 years ago. We only spent maybe 2-3 years actually living together, very on and off. No kids from our marriage, she has a son from another relationship prior to who lives with his father. She supposedly "remarried" a couple years ago, but since we're technically still married...Knowing her she probably never told her new husband, but that's not my concern.
We have no joint accounts or property, filed taxes separately, have our own accounts and vehicles. I paid off all the old joint account bad dept/collections we had and my credit is now sparkling and I'd like to keep it that way. We lived separate lives for the past 6-7 years and everything has been kept completely separate, obviously the law may take a different view or she might flip-flop.
Separation reason was drugs and alcohol on her part. Last I heard she was also up on felony charges for Meth distribution as of March 2012. Not sure where that stands now or if she's even in jail.
Why have I waited this long? Because I'm stupid, no other excuses. Regardless, right now my assets are pretty meager, less than 15k all together. But that will change quite a bit over the next 3-5 years. I need to get this done now and I'd like to prevent any nasty long term nonsense like life-long alimony for a woman I barely lived with. I feel mildly confident we can reach a separation agreement that would prevent me from having to pay any alimony (especially long-term) or lose assets that I've build while we were informally separated. But my understanding of CA law is that you can no longer do a joint dissolution after 5 years, and that after that your stuck with the communal nonsense where everything is 50-50 and they hand out alimony after 10 years like it's hotcakes.
Can long-term marriages financial situations in CA still be handled with a separation agreement, or is the state judge required to split things up equally? If not, I'd rather keep California out of handling asset distribution which would undoubtedly favor her since she's not as financially well off. I'm wondering if I can legally file in Missouri since she's a resident? The laws I've read online aren't entirely clear, they state that one of the couple need to be a resident; but not whether the out of state party can file in that state.
Any advise is welcome.