While most divorce cases in California are resolved through negotiation or mediation, some reach a point where a courtroom trial becomes necessary. If you and your spouse can’t agree on key issues like custody, support, or division of assets, a judge may have to decide for you. Preparing for trial can feel overwhelming—but with the right guidance and preparation, you can walk into court with confidence.

In this video, we’ll walk you through the divorce trial process in California—from gathering evidence and prepping your testimony to understanding what to expect in the courtroom. We’ll also cover the biggest mistakes people make before and during trial, and how to avoid them.

If you’re navigating a divorce and need guidance to either avoid trial or prepare for trial, Mohajer Law Firm is here to help. We specialize in family law and are dedicated to protecting your interests.

Transcript:

Not every divorce case needs to go to trial. In fact, the majority of cases end up settling entirely before a trial date is even scheduled. However, we do have those small exceptions, those number of cases that unfortunately need to go before a judge to reach the finalization of your case.

In this video, we’re going to talk just about that: understanding the divorce trial process, key steps to better prepare you for your trial, what to expect when you’re in the courtroom, and lastly, some common mistakes to avoid to better prepare you for your trial date.

For those who don’t know me, I’m Sina Mohajer with Mohajer Law Firm. We specialize in family law, criminal defense, estate planning, and personal injury.

In these videos, I like to tackle complex issues and try to simplify it for our viewers in order to better prepare you in handling your own case or working with your attorney when finalizing your case. So if the contents of this video was helpful to you, please share with your loved ones and friends. Don’t forget to hit that like button. And also, please also subscribe. So you’re always informed of any new videos being posted. Without further ado, I welcome you all to our new mini series called A Walk in the Park.

Divorce Trials in California

So why do cases even go to trial? Why is it needed? Well, in your case, for any issues that you had, if you and the other spouse cannot come to an agreement and there’s no finalization, then we have no other option other than to present our case before the judge and have him or her decide the outcome.

Judges make their decisions based on testimony, evidence presented, and perhaps a little bit of argument. The time expectancy that you can predict that your trial could take depends on the number of issues you have, as well as the complexity of those issues. I’ve seen trials take anywhere from half a day all the way up to a week or two that I’ve been involved in, only because it was so complicated and there were so many moving parts. We needed that extra time.

Key Steps of the Divorce Trial Process

So what are some key steps to take in order to better prepare you for your trial?

Evidence

First, and most important thing, is your evidence. Without evidence, there’s no point going to trial. So you have to start gathering your financial documents, bank statements, any other statements or documents that are going to be pertinent to the issues at hand, as well as email communications, text messages that might relate to custody or visitation.

Pretrial Motions, Prep for Testimony, and More

The next step to take is to work with your attorney. If you have one. There’s a lot of times that we have to file pretrial motions or strategize with our clients in order to better prepare you for the day of trial.

And one of those steps is also to prepare you for your testimony, your live testimony. What are some questions we’re going to ask? So that way you’re not caught off guard and you can polish your response a little bit more effectively. Also, to better prepare you for the cross-examination stage. The cross-examination stage is when the other attorney gets to ask you questions after I’ve had the opportunity to ask you the questions that I wanted. And it’s always important to kind of work through that with your attorney so you’re not caught off guard and your testimony ends up coming seamlessly.

During the Trial

What to expect when you’re in the courtroom when the day of trial actually arrives. The way it usually starts is you start off with an opening statement. You’ve got your testimony, you’ve got your admission of evidence, cross-examination, as well as a closing argument.

But every courtroom is different. I’ve said this in my other videos, and I’ll say it again. Every judge handles every case differently and their courtroom differently. Some judges don’t allow for an opening statement or they don’t allow for a closing statement or neither. And they just want to jump right into the facts and testimony. But some judges do provide it.

An opening statement, just to kind of get you better prepared, is the opportunity for the attorney to kind of let the judge know what they can expect from this trial, what witnesses will testify to, what facts will be presented, what evidence will be presented to support those facts.

Then you have your witness testimony. That could be the parties, the husband and wife, or the spouses, it could be expert testimony, whether it’s a forensic accountant, child psychologist, a vocational evaluation, or whatever you had during the pendency of your case. All those witnesses need to come to testify.

Lastly, as the closing argument, the attorneys get the opportunity to have the last say. This is where we bring everything in together and connect all the dots from all the facts and evidence that we presented to the judge. The closing argument allows me to be able to be a little bit more convincing to the judge and explain why the request that we have should be granted and why their request should not be granted.

Common Mistakes When Going to Trial for Divorce

But what are some common mistakes?

Not Following Court Orders

There’s quite a few, but to narrow it down, one of the common mistakes is not following court orders before your trial date. The judge gives pretrial orders, which is to submit a trial brief, witness list, an exhibit list, a certain number of days before trial. By not following that order can be detrimental to your case because you could be prevented from providing any testimony or providing any evidence outright altogether. And without testimony or evidence, there’s no point going to trial.

Testifying with Too Much Emotion

Another common mistake I see is that people tend to testify with too much emotion. And I emphasize too much for a particular reason, because some emotion is going to be necessary. When dealing with custody and visitation, how can a parent not be emotional? So emotion can go a certain distance, but when it comes to division of assets and debts, arguing what is community, what is separate property, or even discussing support, perhaps being emotional during those instances wouldn’t be helpful to your case.

Testimony That Doesn’t Focus on the Children

The last common mistake I see is not having your testimony focus on the impact that it has on the children. The court’s primary focus is always going to be the children, their well-being, and what’s in their best interest. And by not telling your testimony, as far as what you’re requesting and showing the court that you’re keeping in mind how it impacts the children, could potentially prevent you from getting those orders granted.

Contact a Divorce Trial Lawyer

So in this video, we talked about understanding the divorce trial process, steps to take to better prepare you for your trial, what to expect when you’re in the courtroom, and lastly, some common mistakes to avoid. I hope this video was extremely helpful to you. If you like the content of this video, please again, hit that like button and don’t forget to subscribe, so you’re always informed of any new videos being posted.