Grounds For Divorce In England
In England and Wales, you can only divorce once you have been married for a year. There is basically only one ground for divorce, which is the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. You have to prove this irretrievable breakdown by establishing one or more of the following facts or grounds: adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion or undergoing a mutually agreed 2-year separation or a 5-year separation.
To get a divorce using adultery as the reason you need to prove, through sufficient circumstantial evidence or through your spouses admission, that your spouse has had sex with another person of the opposite sex and that you find it intolerable to continue living with your spouse. If a liaison of a sexual nature that falls short of sexual intercourse has taken place you can use the unreasonable behaviour ground to obtain a divorce. Divorces in which the name of the third party is used in the petition generally becomes more acrimonious and take longer, it is wiser to resist the temptation to name them. You have only 6 months from when you found out about the adultery to file your divorce petition with the courts.
You must show that your spouse has behaved in such a way that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with them to get a divorce using unreasonable behaviour as grounds. In an unreasonable behaviour divorce petition, the petitioner sets out their allegations against the respondent. Allegations may include excessive drinking, financial extravagance, or milder reasons, such as, having no common interests or pursuing a separate social life. Using milder allegations is wise when possible, it can make it easier to agree a divorce petition with your spouse in advance saving you both a great deal of additional stress.
To prove desertion your spouse must have deserted you without your consent for a continuous period of at least two years. This is the least used grounds for divorce.
To qualify for a divorce based on 2-years separation, you and your spouse must have been living apart by consent for at least the last two years immediately preceding the presentation of the divorce petition and you must both agree to a divorce.
To get a divorce based on 5-years separation, you and your spouse must live apart for at least five years immediately prior to the presentation of the divorce petition. You do not need your spouses consent to obtain this type of divorce.
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