Grounds For Divorce

The Divorce Code of Pennsylvania, as amended in 2005, provides for no-fault grounds in addition to fault grounds for divorce. Because Pennsylvania is a no-fault state with regard to property division, most parties establish and move forward on no-fault grounds in the majority of divorce cases.

A prerequisite to establish such grounds is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken with no possibility of reconciliation.” No-fault divorces fall within the following two (2) categories:

1) Mutual consent – marriage must be irretrievably broken with no possibility of reconciliation. After 90 days have elapsed following the filing and service of a complaint in divorce, the parties may sign and file the affidavit of consent, which is the first of several legal documents required leading to a divorce.

2) Irretrievable breakdown: 2-year separation – If a party cannot prove fault grounds for a divorce, he or she can obtain a unilateral no-fault divorce if he or she can prove to the court that the parties have lived separate and apart for at least 2 years.

a. Under Pennsylvania law, parties can be considered separated even though they reside in the same household. Proof of living “separate and apart” includes a cessation of a sexual relationship, sleeping in different bedrooms, separation of finances, not attending family functions or socializing as a couple, eating separately and representation to the community that the parties have separated. Typically, facts and circumstances will determine the separation date.

At the Law Offices of Stacy E. Schwarz our Pennsylvania divorce lawyer guide clients with precision in choosing and/or analyzing the date of separation for purposes of obtaining a divorce and as the date of separation relates to property division.

If one party wants to divorce another and the other party refuses to consent to the divorce and the party who wants the divorce does not want to wait 2 years to obtain a unilateral, no-fault divorce, a divorce on the basis of fault may be sought by the party who must be the “innocent and injured” spouse. In Pennsylvania, there are six categories of a spouse’s behavior that would constitute fault grounds:

1) Desertion – one party leaves the home of the other without justification or reasonable cause for a period of one or more years.

2) Adultery – proof by clear and convincing evidence of “opportunity and inclination” to have extramarital sexual relations prior to final separation.

3) Cruel and Barbarous Treatment – The innocent and injured spouse’s life and health was endangered by the other spouse.

4) Bigamy – One spouse knowingly entered into the marriage while a former marriage was still in existence and the innocent and injured spouse was unaware of the other spouse’s marriage.

5) Incarceration – Where one party is convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of two or more years imprisonment.

6) Indignities – (The most frequently used basis for a fault divorce.) One spouse has treated another spouse so egregiously so as to make that spouse’s “condition intolerable and life burdensome.”

Grounds for Divorce on the Basis of Insanity

This basis does not fall within a no-fault ground or fault ground (i.e., does not require one spouse to be “innocent and injured”) and is thus an independent ground for divorce. To qualify for a divorce based on the other spouse’s “insanity,” the spouse must show that the “insane” spouse has a serious mental disorder which has resulted in the confinement of that spouse for at least eighteen (18) months prior to the filing of the divorce complaint and that there is no reasonable prospect of discharge during the eighteen (18) months following the filing of the divorce complaint.

Common Law Marriage

As of September 17, 2003, common law marriage has been abolished in Pennsylvania by the Commonwealth Court. However, this issue could go up to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in the future.