Legal Separation Guide

A legal separation is a court order that can provide you with an agreement that outlines custody of your children, parenting time, child support, and the distribution of property.
You might seek a legal separation if your religious beliefs prohibit divorce or if you or your spouse have not lived in Washington long enough to file for divorce; Although different semantically, legal separation costs about the same as a divorce. Filing for legal separation does not necessarily preclude a separate divorce case from being filed later, a separation may also be converted into a divorce within a certain period.

The main difference between a legal separation and a divorce is that you are still married after a legal separation; therefore, you may still retain certain rights that you would have lost through divorce, such as the right to inherit property from your spouse.