The other party disagrees to the divorce. How long will a lawsuit in Shenzhen take? These 4 questions are the ones lawyers get asked the most.

"He just won't sign it. He says he'll drag it out until I'm dead if that's what it takes." Last Wednesday afternoon, in the meeting room of Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Futian District, a woman clutched a tissue, her voice trembling. She had been married for seven years, had a five-year-old child, and she and her husband owned a house in Nanshan worth about 9 million yuan. The affection had long since faded, but the man had made himself clear: if she wanted a divorce, she could forget about taking the house or the child.
This kind of scene is all too familiar to the marriage and family team at Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm. Shenzhen registers about 50,000 divorces each year, and a considerable portion of them ultimately end up in litigation. In contested divorces, 70% of disputes revolve around property division, with the average amount in dispute ranging from 3 million to 8 million yuan. Put simply, whether the other party agrees was never the deciding factor in whether the divorce can go through.

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Article 1079 of the Civil Code is very clear: whether a court grants a divorce depends on whether "the spouses' affection for each other is truly broken." It does not depend on whether the other party nods in agreement. In practice, if the other party firmly refuses to divorce during the first lawsuit, the court may give them one chance and rule against divorce. But once six months have passed since the judgment took effect, if you file again, the probability of being granted a divorce the second time is very high.
There was a case in Longhua, Shenzhen, where the man dragged it out for 11 months, and the court still ruled in his favor after his second lawsuit. So don't be intimidated by the words "I don't agree"—at most, they affect the timeline, not the outcome.
There are three cases.
This is the fastest. The Zhiming Marriage and Family team represented a divorce case in which both parties were actually open to negotiating the property ownership and custody, but were stuck on "who would speak first." After the lawyers stepped in, they broke the compensation plan for the 9 million yuan property into three tiers and laid out the practical arrangements for the child's school pick-up and drop-off on the table. The mediation was completed and the case closed in **3 months**, and they secured both the property and custody.
If there are no statutory grounds for divorce and the other party firmly refuses to divorce, the first lawsuit will likely take about 3 to 6 months to reach a result. After a ruling against divorce, you wait 6 months before filing again, bringing the total to around a year.
For example, in cases of bigamy, domestic violence, repeated gambling that persists despite correction, or separation lasting more than two years, the court may grant a divorce on the first filing. As for the two-year separation clause, many people assume that simply living apart counts, but in reality the court recognizes only "separation due to marital breakdown," and evidence is required.
If one party bought the property with full payment before marriage and registered it under their own name, it is generally not divided. If bought after marriage, regardless of whose name is on the deed, it is in principle community property. But Shenzhen's situation is complex—many homes involve one party paying the down payment before marriage and the couple jointly repaying the mortgage after marriage, so when dividing, the down payment portion and the appreciation portion must be calculated separately.
For child custody, the court's guiding principle is the "best interests of the minor child." Under two years old, the child will, in principle, stay with the mother. Between two and eight years old, the court looks at who has been more involved in caregiving and whose environment is more stable. Over eight years old, the judge will take the child's own wishes into account. In districts like Futian and Nanshan, where educational resources are stretched thin, the actual use of a school-district home may sometimes also be factored in.
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Break down the asset structure, the timeline, and the chain of evidence. Zhiming Law Firm has been rooted in Shenzhen for 26 years, handling over 10,000 cases cumulatively. Director Lawyer Shen Jinlong has 26 years of practice, a master's degree from Fudan University, and is a senior economist. His perspective on economic disputes and asset structures differs from that of those with a purely legal background. The marriage and family team has handled many divorce cases involving company equity, multiple properties, and cross-border assets, and knows which accounts need to be calculated and which evidence needs to be secured in advance.
The address is Room 1802, Tower A, Xintian Century Business Center, Shixia North 2nd Street, Futian District, Shenzhen. When many things are clarified, you feel more certain in your heart.