Causes of Action from Divorce

No-Fault Divorce Grounds

• Irreconcilable difference: Irreconcilable difference causing the breakdown of the marriage for a period or six months, which make it appear that the marriage should be dissolved and that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.
• Separation: A separation occurs when eighteen or more consecutive months of continuous separation without reasonable prospect of reconciliation. After the eighteen month period there is a presumption that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.

Fault Divorce Grounds

• Adultery: Adultery is when one spouse’s rejection of the other, by entering into a personal intimate relationship with any other person, regardless of the specific sexual acts performed. If known, the Complaint must state the name of the adulterer (the third person with whom the offending conduct was committed) and a copy of the Complaint must be served on that person.
• Desertion: The willful and continuous desertion of one spouse by the other spouse where the parties have ceased to cohabit as husband and wife for at least the twelve consecutive months immediately prior to the filing of the Complaint.
• Extreme Cruelty: Physical or mental cruelty which endangers the safety or health of the Plaintiff to continue to cohabitate. Complaint shall be based upon allegations that occurred 3 months prior to the filing date. The three month rule does not apply to the counterclaim.
• Addiction: Addiction constitutes habitual drunkenness or a persistent and substantial dependence on a narcotic or other controlled dangerous substance subsequent to the marriage and for at least the twelve consecutive months immediately prior to the filing of the Complaint.
• Institutionalization: This ground requires a spouse to have been institutionalized for mental illness for a period of twelve or more consecutive months subsequent to the marriage and preceding the filing of the Complaint.
• Imprisonment: Imprisonment as a ground for divorce occurs when a spouse has been imprisoned for eighteen or more months after the marriage and the parties have not resumed cohabitation after the imprisonment.
• Deviant sexual conduct: Deviant sexual conduct is conduct occurring without the other party’s consent.