Short answer: 4-5 months if you and your spouse are in agreement regarding everything, and a year or more if the matter is heavily contested.
It is impossible to know for sure how long your divorce will take to be completed. Many factors that affect the timeline for your divorce are out of your (and my) control including, for example:
- How many issues are contested (child custody, support, spousal maintenance, property division) and how complex they are.
- Whether you and your spouse can work together to accomplish the divorce.
- How backed up the court’s calendar is.
- Whether your spouse is a jerk and fights everything tooth-and-nail.
- Whether you want to act like a jerk and fight everything tooth-and-nail.
- Whether your spouse’s attorney is a jerk.
- Whether your attorney is a jerk.
- Whether you have realistic expectations, and whether I can help you accept them.
- Whether your spouse avoids being served with the papers for the lawsuit.
That list is not exhaustive, and every divorce is unique.