Marriages in the United States are legal contracts between a husband and a wife. While you might simply leave your spouse, if something were to happen to either of you, the other might be liable for debt, or inherit money that you don’t want to allow your spouse to have. A divorce is the way to legally dissolve a marriage and split shared assets. Although divorces are emotionally taxing, most of them are resolved amicably and not in bitterly contested court proceedings.

There are the basic types of divorce:

1. No-fault divorce is a divorce in which the dissolution of a marriage requires neither a showing of wrong-doing of either party nor any evidentiary proceedings at all. Laws providing for no-fault divorce allow a family court to grant a divorce in response to a petition by either party to the marriage, without requiring the petitioner to provide evidence that the respondent has committed a breach of the marital contract. Laws providing for no-fault divorce also limit the potential legal defenses of a respondent who would prefer to remain married.

2. Fault divorce which only thirty-two states presently have laws recognizing fault in some divorce cases. Some of the grounds for seeking a fault divorce may include: Adultery, Physical abuse, Mental abuse, Attempted murder, Drug use, Impotency

3. A summary divorce, available in some jurisdictions, is used when spouses meet certain requirements for eligibility, or can agree on important issues beforehand like if it was a marriage lasting under 5 years, there were no children (or, in some states, the couple have resolved custody and set payments for child support), there was minimal or no real property (there was no mortgage on a house or condo), the property owned by the married couple is under a threshold (around $35,000, not including vehicles), and the personal property of each spouse is under a set threshold (typically the same amount as marital property). A simple divorce where both couples agree on how the divorce should be handled and assets divided is also known as an uncontested divorce.

Dissolving a marriage is a big step in life that should not be taken lightly. Even if you are certain that you can no longer live with your spouse, be prepared for an emotionally draining process, especially when children are involved.

Tags: Divorce, law, United States divorce law

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