In a Shenzhen divorce case, the other party refused to agree and dragged things out for 11 months. After a lawyer got involved, the case was settled through mediation in 3 months, and I got both the property and custody of my daughter.
Last August, when Ms. Zhang from Futian came to us, she was clutching a half-written divorce agreement, her eyes red. She and her husband had been married for nine years, owned a home in Nanshan worth about 6.8 million yuan, and had a seven-year-old daughter. The affection had long faded, and they had been sleeping in separate rooms for over a year, but every time she brought up divorce, her husband had just one thing to say: "I don't agree. What are you going to do about it?"
Ms. Zhang tried to handle it herself. She talked for four months—from home to a café, and from the café to the police station—because during one argument her husband smashed a cup, and a neighbor called the police. Still, she couldn't get divorced. Her husband's stance was clear: the house was bought after marriage, he paid the bulk of the down payment, and the child must go to him too. "I'll drag it out until you're dead."
If the other party does not agree, can the marriage not be dissolved?
Many people have a misconception that as long as one party refuses to sign, the marriage can never be dissolved. That is not true. If consensual divorce does not work, there is still the path of litigation divorce. Article 1079 of the Civil Code clearly states that if one spouse requests a divorce, he or she may directly file a divorce lawsuit with a people's court. When a people's court hears a divorce case, it shall conduct mediation; if the affection between the parties has truly broken down and mediation is ineffective, it shall grant the divorce.
The problem is that in court, the six words "the relationship has indeed broken down" must be backed by evidence. When Ms. Zhang first wrote her own complaint and submitted it to the court, her husband said at the hearing, "Our relationship is very good; we just argue occasionally." The judge asked Ms. Zhang whether she had proof of separation, police reports, or chat records to support that the relationship had broken down—she could not provide any. In the first lawsuit, the court ruled that the divorce was not granted.
How long does a contested divorce actually take?
This is the question I get asked most often during consultations. Shenzhen registers about 50,000 divorces each year, and a considerable portion of these ultimately end up in litigation. As for the timeline for litigated divorce, if it is the first filing and the other party firmly refuses to agree, and there are no statutory grounds for granting the divorce, the court will most likely not grant it. Only six months after the judgment takes effect can one file again. In other words, following the ordinary path, a year and a half is the norm.
But Ms. Zhang's situation is different. In the seventh month after her first judgment took effect, which was this March, we reorganized the evidence: the lease contract for the rental in Futian where she lived alone with her daughter during the separation, utility payment records, testimony from her daughter's schoolteacher, the police incident report from the time her husband smashed a cup, and a chat record in which her husband said on WeChat, "Don't even think about the house, and don't even think about the child." This evidence points to one conclusion: the relationship has indeed broken down, and the husband has shown a clearly improper attitude on the issue of custody.
When it comes to property and custody, what exactly does the court look at?
The house in Nanshan was purchased after marriage and registered under both names. The man paid about 2 million yuan as the down payment, and the loan was repaid together for six years. The man claims that the down payment was his personal property and that he should receive a larger share. However, under Article 1062 of the Civil Code, property acquired after marriage is in principle community property of the spouses unless there is an explicit agreement. If there is no prenuptial property agreement or clear evidence proving that the source of the down payment was personal property, the court generally will not support the claim that "the down payment belongs to one individual."
Regarding custody, the daughter is 7 years old, already over 2 but under 8. The court will comprehensively consider both parties' parenting capacity, parenting conditions, and the child's current living situation. Although Ms. Zhang's income is lower than the man's, she has been the primary caregiver for her daughter from birth until now. The school is in Futian, and the child's life routine is stable. The man travels frequently for work and is away from Shenzhen more than 200 days a year. These facts are more persuasive than income figures.
From "dragging it out until you give up" to settling the case through mediation in three months, where is the key?
The first thing we did after taking on the case was not to rush into filing a lawsuit, but to apply for pre-litigation mediation. Many people think mediation is just muddling through, but in the Shenzhen Futian Court, the pre-litigation mediation procedure actually serves as a buffer for cases like this where the subject matter of the dispute is clear but the emotional confrontation between the parties is intense. After the mediator got involved, we laid out the evidence list and the property division plan on the table, and the husband's side also hired a lawyer. Both sides softened during the third round of mediation.
Final agreement: The house goes to Ms. Zhang, and she will take on the remaining mortgage. She will compensate the husband 2.6 million yuan, paid off over two years. Custody of their daughter goes to Ms. Zhang, and the husband will pay 6,000 yuan per month in child support and have visitation rights. From formally retaining us to receiving the mediation document, it took just over three months. Ms. Zhang later told me that what moved her most was not the house, but that her daughter would no longer be pulled back and forth between her parents.
A few practical reminders.
If you're also stuck at the "the other party won't agree" stage, don't rush into repeated negotiations. When you can't reach an agreement, every ineffective conversation drains your energy and undermines the value of your evidence. Establish the fact of separation, clarify the leads on marital property, and legally document the other party's stance on child custody. The courts in Longhua, Bao'an, and Nanshan districts of Shenzhen vary in how aggressively they push mediation in divorce cases—choosing the right path matters more than blindly filing a lawsuit.
Additionally, 70% of divorce lawsuits in Shenzhen involve property division, with the average disputed amount ranging from 3 million to 8 million yuan. How a single property is divided often determines the entire trajectory of a divorce case. Calculating it yourself easily leads to errors, especially regarding details like the portion of mortgage repaid after marriage, the appreciation portion, and the source of the down payment—a difference of just one percentage point can mean a gap of hundreds of thousands of yuan.
The marital and family law team at Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has been handling cases in Shenzhen for 26 years, with over 10,000 cases represented in total. Director Shen Jinlong is a Fudan University master's graduate and senior economist who has served as an executive at a state-owned enterprise, making him more sensitive than ordinary lawyers to the accounting logic in property division. If you are going through a similar tug-of-war, you can call 0755-25986969 to schedule a time and lay everything out for a discussion. Some things turn out completely differently if you act three months earlier.
(This article is for general legal education purposes only. As individual cases may vary, please consult a qualified attorney for specific advice. Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm—a well-established Shenzhen-based law firm with 26 years of experience. Tel: 0755-25986969; Address: Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shisha North 2nd Street, Futian District, Shenzhen.)
