Divorce and Other Options for Ending Your Marriage WITHOUT Children in Washington State

No. Washington is a “no-fault” divorce state. You do not need to prove a spouse was “at fault.” You must only prove irreconcilable differences. You no longer get along.

It legally ends your marriage. The court can also divide your property and debts, award one of you maintenance (alimony), limit one spouse’s contact with the other, and change a spouse’s name.

The court may give you everything a divorce does, but does not end the marriage. You are still married.  Read Legal Separation.

It is called "invalidity" in Washington State. This court action can make it as if your marriage never happened. Generally, you will have to be able to prove that you were not competent to agree to marry in the first place, or you could not legally agree to be married for other reasons. Read Divorce: General Information to learn more.  

No. If you are in a registered domestic partnership, you file to end your partnership. Use our File for Divorce packet or Washington Forms Online interview. The forms and procedure are the same for divorce and domestic partnership.

Yes, IF one of these is true:

• You live in Washington.

• Your spouse lives in Washington.

• You are in the military and stationed in Washington.

• Your military spouse will be stationed in Washington for at least 90 days after you file and serve the divorce.

Washington must have personal jurisdiction over your spouse to be able to make certain types of orders. Washington generally will have personal jurisdiction over your spouse if one of these is true:

1. Your spouse lives in Washington.

2. Your spouse lived in Washington at some point during your marriage.

3. You still live, or are stationed in the armed forces, in Washington.

You may still be able to file for divorce and serve your spouse by publication. You can still ask the court to end your marriage and divide any property and debts located in Washington. Read Service by Certified Mail or Publication.

You may have to file in tribal court. Talk to a lawyer with expertise in Indian law.

You must wait at least 90 days after filing and serving the petition before the judge can sign final orders. If you and your spouse have an agreement, you can both sign final orders and schedule a hearing for the judge to sign. You can do this any time after the 90-day period. If you can't agree, it will take longer. Your case will go to trial.

Some counties give you a case schedule as soon as you file. It will have a trial date and other deadlines. If a judge signs agreed final orders before trial, the court will cancel your trial.

In other counties, you ask for a trial date after your spouse has filed a response.

How long it takes also depends on your county and how complicated your case is. It is best to try to come to an agreement if you can. Trials can be complicated. You may need a lawyer.

You may want Temporary Family Law Orders. The court enters these quickly. They can last until trial or the end of your case. Example: You want an order keeping your spouse from cleaning out the bank accounts or selling things before trial.

It depends:

• Are you happy with how things are right now without them? 

• Do you need an order making your spouse do (or stop doing) something?

Temporary orders can include:

• Restraining orders to keep one spouse from harassing or coming near the other.

• Restraining orders keeping a spouse from getting rid of property, taking out loans in both your names, or taking your name off insurance policies.

• Orders for maintenance (alimony), attorney’s fees, or use of your house or car.

• Order that one spouse can live in the house and the other cannot.

If there is an emergency, you may need an Immediate Restraining Order right away. The judge can enter this without giving your spouse notice. (Your spouse later can have a hearing. The judge decides there if the order will continue.)

You may need this order if you cannot wait one to three weeks for a hearing to get help from the court.

Examples:

• Your spouse is harassing/harming you.

• Your spouse is taking a lot of money out of your accounts or selling/hiding property.

If you file for Immediate Restraining Orders, you do not need to file for Temporary Orders.

Yes, any time before your divorce is final. To ask the court to change a temporary order, you file another Motion for Temporary Family Law Orders.   

If you are afraid that your spouse may hurt/threaten you, the court can issue special orders to help protect you. If you have been a domestic violence victim, or your spouse has threatened you, you can ask for a Domestic Violence Protection Order anytime. You can also ask for a permanent protection order as part of the final divorce orders.

A Domestic Violence Protection Order can:

• Keep your spouse out of the family home and away from your home, work, or school.

• Order your spouse not to threaten/assault/harass/stalk you.

• Order your spouse to get domestic violence and/or alcohol/drug treatment.

• Order your spouse to turn their gun in to law enforcement.

For more about Protection Orders, contact your court’s protection order advocates or local domestic violence program, or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.7233. Protection order forms are available from the court clerk or your local domestic violence program. You can also use our do-it-yourself interview program, Get a Domestic Violence Protection Order. 

You must tell the court about all your property and debts. Washington is a community property state. Generally, all property (house, other real estate, car) either spouse gets during the marriage is community property. It belongs to both spouses, even if only one is on the title. Each spouse’s earnings during the marriage is community property.

Your Divorce Petition proposes how the court should divide property and debts. The court in the Final Divorce Order decides who gets what.

Separate property belongs to only one spouse. Generally, it is property you got before the marriage through inheritance or as a gift (before or during the marriage), or after separation.

Generally, all debts either spouse incurred during the marriage are community debts. Both spouses are equally responsible for them. You incur separate debts before the marriage or after separation.

Division of property in divorces can be complicated. Talk to a lawyer.

It depends. The court can make any just and equitable division, after considering:

• The nature and extent of the community property.

• The nature and extent of the separate property.

• How long the marriage lasted.

• Each spouse’s economic circumstances at the time the property division will become effective.

It will depend. The court considers what condition property and debt division will leave you each in after the divorce. It generally does not want one spouse very wealthy and the other poor. It will consider your

• Age.

• Health.

• Education.

• Work prospects.

Example 1:  You had a long marriage.  You have not worked much outside the home. The court may award you more community property (or long-term maintenance) so you do not end up much poorer than your spouse is. 

Example 2:  You have a disability.  You cannot work. The court may award you more community property. 

Example 3:  The court can consider which spouse can afford to pay the debts when deciding who must pay them.

In most cases, the court will award each spouse their separate property and order each to pay their separate debts. It rarely awards one spouse’s separate property and debts to the other.

You may have signed a written agreement before marrying stating how you would divide your property and debts if you divorced. We often call this a prenuptial agreement.

You may have signed an agreement during the marriage stating which of your property is community and separate. We call this a Community Property Agreement. Couples sometimes do these as part of an estate plan.

You might have signed an agreement after separation dividing property and debts. We call this a Property Settlement Agreement or Separation Contract.

If you have any written agreement about your property and debts, have a lawyer look at it. This might determine how the court divides property and debts in your case.

It depends. Property you bought with money earned during the marriage is community property. Your income during the marriage is community property. Anything you buy with your income belongs to you both. The judge will divide the car and other property according to what they decide is just.

Maybe. The court might award you an interest in the house.

The house is your spouse’s separate property. They bought it before your marriage. It remains separate after you marry UNLESS your spouse gives it as a gift to the community. This could happen if, for example, you refinance it in both names.

You may be entitled to an interest in any increase in the house’s value from improvements you made to the house (such as a remodel or new deck) during the marriage, plus the community payments on the mortgage. The court would subtract the house’s reasonable rental value from your community interest because you benefited from living there during the marriage. It could rule you have no community interest in the house because of the value you got from living there. 

Look at

• Its value.

• What you still owe on it.

• Your post-divorce incomes.  

Example: can just one of you pay the mortgage?  If not, awarding one of you the home may lead to foreclosure and damage your credit.  It might be safer to sell it.

Do not create a post-divorce situation where title is in one name, the debt in another.   Example: The divorce court awards you title to the home. No one takes action to make this official. Your spouse’s name stays on the mortgage.  Your spouse falls behind on payments. It will then be very hard to get the lender to give you a modification with your spouse’s name still on the mortgage.  To avoid problems, you must refinance the property in one spouse’s name at or near the time of the divorce.

Yes, even if one spouse objects. The court will most likely do this if one of these is true:

• You must sell it to divide the property fairly.

• You are behind on payments.

It depends:

• Retirement/pension benefits, including 401(k) plans, earned during the marriage are community property. Both spouses have a legal interest in them.

• Pensions earned both before and during the marriage: the portion earned during the marriage (and the increase in value of that portion) is community property. 

• Disability benefits substituting for pension benefits might be community property.

If you believe that your spouse has a pension, 401(k), IRA, or other retirement or disability plan, talk with a lawyer about your rights. You may be able to get a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) ordering the pension plan to pay you benefits directly after your spouse retires. The Pension Rights Center publishes Dividing Retirement Benefits at Divorce. Read it or call them at (202) 296-3776.

No. Washington has “no-fault” divorce. The court cannot consider which spouse “caused” the divorce when dividing property. The court may consider if your spouse wasted marital assets without your consent OR tried to hide assets from the court.

Maybe. Maintenance (alimony) is a payment one spouse makes to the other for financial support. The court does not always award maintenance. It must look at things such as:

• How long you have been married.

• Both your financial situations, given the division of property and debts and your spouse’s ability to pay maintenance.

• Time it will take for you to get education or training.

• Standard of living during the marriage.

• Your age and health.

If you have not worked in a long time (example: you stayed home to raise the children), you are more likely to get maintenance than if you are temporarily laid off.  On the other hand, you can get maintenance even if you are working, if the court decides you should enjoy the same standard of living you had during the marriage.  You are more likely to get maintenance if both of these are true:

• You were married many years.

• You have a disability and/or stayed home to care for the children while your spouse worked. You are less likely to get a good job now. 

Maintenance payments generally end when you remarry or die.  The Final Divorce Order may say otherwise.

You must pay the debt and sue your spouse to pay you back.  Even if the court orders your spouse to pay a debt, the creditor (person owed) may still come after you. You cannot stop the creditor by telling the creditor the debt is your ex’s responsibility.

If you think this might happen, check the “hold harmless” box in the Final Divorce Order form. It is the second box in section 12. Then, if you must sue your ex- to make them pay you back for debts you paid, they must also pay your attorney’s fees and costs.

Maybe. If your spouse files for bankruptcy, you should get notice of it. Talk immediately with a lawyer who knows bankruptcy law. You may need to take part in the bankruptcy case to protect yourself.

Use our Do-it-Yourself family law forms, Washington Forms Online. This program on Washington LawHelp asks you questions and uses your answers to fill out forms. (Similar to popular tax preparation software.) The interviews work best on a desktop computer, laptop, or large tablet. You can use a mobile phone, but it is harder on a phone.

We also have printable packets with blank forms for you to print and fill out on your own, with how-to instructions for completing and filing.

Check the list below to see what is available. This list should help you decide which you need. You may need more than one. Get only what you need when you need them.

• File for Divorce – to start your divorce.  Ask the Court to Waive Your Filing Fee –you cannot afford to pay the filing fee.  Use this to ask the court to waive (not ask for) the filing fee required to file court papers in a civil case because you cannot afford to pay it. Service by Certified Mail or Publication –you have tried to serve your spouse in person, but could not. You can ask for court permission to serve by other methods.

• File for Temporary Family Law Orders: Divorce Cases – to ask for an order covering any period between the filing of the case and the date it is final.

• File for Immediate Restraining Orders: Divorce Cases – to ask for an emergency order to take effect immediately. 

• Respond to Motions for Temporary Family Law Orders or Immediate Restraining Orders in a Family Law Case -  Your spouse has filed a Motion for Temporary Family Law Orders or Motion for Immediate Restraining Order.

• Finalize Your Divorce by Default–You are ready to finalize. Your spouse has not responded.

• Finalize Your Divorce (without children) by Agreement –You are ready to finalize. You and your spouse have an agreement (settlement).

• Dismiss Your Petition for Divorce - You do not want to end your marriage after all.

• Other:  Local Do-it-Yourself packets: Local court rules may require you to use their forms/packets. Ask the court clerk or facilitator.

Hire a lawyer to represent you. If you can afford to, talk to one about your case and consider hiring them to file for you. If you cannot afford a lawyer, contact your local legal services office. Some legal services offices, county bar associations, and pro bono programs handle divorces. They usually can directly represent only a very few people. If you have a low income and live outside King County, call CLEAR for a referral at 1-888-201-1014. If you have a low income and live in King County, call the King County Bar Association at (206) 623-2551. Ask for a referral for low-income representation in family law.

Take a “Self-Help” class. Some counties have classes on how to file your own divorce. It may cost more than this packet, but help more with forms and local procedures. Take a class if you can. To find out if your county has a self-help class, contact your local family law facilitator, if there is one.

Where available, use the local family law facilitator’s Do-It-Yourself packets. Some counties have family law facilitators who can help you file your own divorce. They are not lawyers. They cannot give legal advice. They do often have do-it-yourself packets designed for that county.

We have other publications and packets on WashingtonLawHelp.org, and links for legal research. If you need more info, or do not have a printer or internet access, visit your local law library (usually in your county’s Superior Court building). The library staff may be able to help you find the resources you need.