Most estranged California couples who are going through divorces manage to move through the process in a reasonable manner despite the emotional difficulties. In some cases, however, one or both parties create a high-conflict divorce that prolongs the process and causes physical and mental distress. Toxic divorces like this require exceptional attention to detail. To reduce the friction, you could employ a few strategies.
Leave nothing to interpretation
Under normal circumstances, court orders related to a divorce may spell out decisions in general terms. For example, a child custody order may simply specify which days the co-parents drop off and pick up children. In a high-conflict divorce, a vaguely worded court order creates opportunities for a hostile person to sow chaos. The person may ignore the terms of the order or follow it in an unexpected fashion such as dropping off kids in the middle of the night or another inconvenient time.
Court-appointed judge
Because a high-conflict divorce will involve more court hearings, you could request a court-appointed judge to handle your case. This way the same judge handles all of your hearings and has a full understanding of the situation. Familiarity with the difficult person could allow a judge to take corrective measures more quickly than a random judge who may want to give someone the benefit of the doubt.
Trustees oversee marital assets
Disclosure and liquidation of marital assets present an opportunity for a hostile person to withhold information or cheat the other person out of money in the divorce settlement. You could look into having third-party attorneys assigned as trustees of the marital assets. The financial aspects of the divorce would then be in the hands of neutral parties who will follow the law in regards to the sale and distribution of funds.