As the names implies, no-fault divorce is the process of legally ending a marriage with no regard for anything either spouse has done during the marriage. The legal basis for a no-fault divorce is “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage, which means the marriage is broken and unable to be fixed. The vast majority of divorces in Pennsylvania are no-fault divorces. A no-fault divorce can be finalized after expiration of the required ninety-day waiting period, as long as all economic claims between the parties have been resolved.
However, the Pennsylvania divorce code still contains a provision for fault-based divorce. With a fault-based divorce, the spouse seeking the divorce must be the “innocent and injured party,” which means they must prove to the court that they have not committed any faults and must prove that the other spouse has committed one or more faults.
Fault in Pennsylvania means the following: 1) Willful and malicious desertion (one or more years); 2) Adultery; 3) Physical cruelty; 4) Bigamy; 5) Sentenced to prison for two or more years for conviction of a crime; 6) Indignities (an ongoing course of conduct which renders the other spouse’s condition intolerable and life burdensome); or 7) Insanity or serious mental disorder (confined in a mental institution for at least eighteen months). There are very few fault-based divorces entered in Pennsylvania. Very few people want to have a court hearing and testify before a judge about everything both spouses did wrong during their marriage.
Several general principles apply to all divorces (fault and no-fault). First, the court will generally not issue a divorce decree until all economic claims between the spouses (for example, distribution of property or alimony) have been resolved by agreement or by court order. That means most divorce actions take longer than ninety days to be resolved because resolving those economic claims takes time – sometimes a lot of time.
Second, all possible economic claims are the same regardless of the type of divorce. Third, questions regarding child support and parenting arrangements are separate from the divorce action. Therefore, you can have three separate court cases pending at the same time.
If you live or work in the central Pennsylvania area, including Carlisle, Harrisburg, Hershey and surrounding communities and would like to discuss divorce or any other family law or estate planning or administration issue, please contact our office for a free telephone consultation today.