California requires a minimum six-month waiting period before your divorce can be finalized. However, this is not to be considered a guarantee that your divorce will not take longer than six months to be completed. If issues are contested and mediation, other forms of alternative dispute resolution, or trial is necessary, the entire process could easily take a year or longer and require extensive work with a family law attorney in Hanford, CA. The cost of your divorce will very much depend upon whether or not you and your spouse can come to an agreement on the major issues of property division, finances, and child custody. The total cost for a divorce in California, including attorney’s fees, can range from $5,000 to $35,000, depending on whether or not your case ends up going trial and whether that trial requires experts, like child custody evaluators.