§32.08 Jurisdiction and Divisible Divorce

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§ 32.08 JURISDICTION AND DIVISIBLE DIVORCE

This chapter presumes that the court has personal jurisdiction over the parties and in rem jurisdiction over any real property. However, real life, as mentioned in the introduction, is more complicated and therefore more interesting. In some cases, the court may have in rem jurisdiction over the real property but not in personam jurisdiction over the respondent. In other cases, it may have in personam jurisdiction over the respondent but not in rem jurisdiction over the real property.

In all cases, however, if it has in personam jurisdiction over the petitioner, it has, perforce, in rem jurisdiction over the divorce, so that it may grant the divorce, but not necessarily address all the incidents of divorce. To describe the court's jurisdiction to address some of the incidents of divorce but not others, the courts have adopted the phrase "divisible divorce." A divorce is divisible because jurisdiction is divisible. A court may have jurisdiction to address some matters raised by the divorce petition, but not others. See Chapter 14 (Divisible Divorce—Jurisdiction, Venue, Commencement) of this deskbook.

Comment: Divisible divorce. The term

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