Sometimes in divorce trials, divorce and property settlement are separated. trial.

After the breakdown of a marriage, a trial.

Bifurcation of a divorce case is not permitted in all states or simply by request. Some jurisdictions preclude bifurcated divorce trials as a matter of law; others permit, but do not necessarily encourage, bifurcated actions. Generally, however, the separation of divorce and settlement happens when the spouses are close to settling or have the desire to settle, have a complicated financial to decipher, or other extraordinary circumstances.

California, which pioneered the liberalization of divorce in the 1970s, takes very generous view of bifurcation.