After eight years, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reached a divorce settlement on Monday. While their separation process was lengthy and complicated, their lives were made a little simpler years before: they were declared "legally single" in 2019. Through a bifurcated judgment - i.e. a case separated into multiple phases - Jolie could legally restore her last name to "Jolie" instead of "Jolie Pitt" before becoming officially divorced.
Nancy Chemtob, a New York City family law attorney, previously told Business Insider that bifurcated judgments allow couples to move forward with their single lives while sorting through the more complex details of their divorces, which can take years. She said celebrities like Kardashian popularizing the term could lead to more people requesting to be legally single.
Being legally single doesn't give couples the ability to fully go their separate ways: in Jolie's case, she had to stay in LA because of her divorce proceedings. But it allows couples to change their names and legally remarry even if their divorce isn't settled yet.
Divorce can be a nightmare. In cases like theirs, which involved splitting child custody and shared homes, the process can take years. It can draw out divorce even more; most divorces don't involve bifurcation - it's granted on a case-by-case basis, and not all state laws permit it.
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