Cleaved Cleese Divorce Closed, a/k/a What is Bifurcation?

In the My Family Law Celebrity Blog, K.McKinney talked about the resolution of the economic issues incident to the California divorce of British actor John Cleese and his ex-wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger Cleese. In the blog it was noted that the Cleese divorce was bifurcated with the divorce having been effective in 2008 but the economic issue resolved only recently.