Divorce is the only area of American law where a court simultaneously unwinds a contract, liquidates a partnership, redistributes a lifetime of savings, and decides how two people will raise their children. This guide walks the entire arc of a dissolution case: jurisdiction and residency, the UCCJEA for custody and UIFSA for support, fault versus no-fault grounds, the automatic financial restraining orders that attach on filing, and the two-step engine of property division — characterization as marital or separate, then division under an equitable-distribution or community-property regime. It goes deep on the hard assets: the marital home and the Moore/Marsden-style apportionment problem, retirement accounts and the mechanics of a Qualified Domestic Relations Order under 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(3), closely held businesses and the enterprise-versus-personal-goodwill split, unvested stock options and the time rule, and intellectual property. It then turns to spousal support, child custody under the best-interests standard, the three child-support guideline models, prenuptial agreements, forensic discovery and hidden assets, settlement and mediation, and post-judgment modification, enforcement, and contempt. Family law is state law: this guide teaches the framework, the uniform acts, and the majority approach, and tells you where to confirm your own state's rule. A running hypothetical — Dana and Ronan Whitfield, with a house, a 401(k), and a co-owned business — carries the doctrine through to numbers.