On October 15, 2010, residents of New York State will finally get a right available in all other 49 American states: no-fault divorce. No fault divorce means that a couple can get divorced without providing any fault in their spouse for the dissolution of the marriage.
Every other state in the United States, including Georgia, as well as every province of Canada, no fault divorce available for quite some time now. New York was the last state to make no fault divorce available to its residents.
What is No Fault Divorce?
Until the 1970s, most states required that a person provide a reason or “fault” if they wanted to divorce their spouse. The person seeking divorce had to go into court and present evidence or testimony that their spouse had done something that provided legal grounds for divorce.
In some states this meant that a spouse had to prove their spouse had committed adultery. In other states they could bring up legitimate grounds for divorce such as abuse or cruelty. Many divorce lawyers believed that these laws encouraged people to perjury, and most agreed that it made for some very ugly, very contentious divorce cases.
The problem was that traditional divorce made the entire process difficult and complicated, not to mention expensive, and the result is that divorce was more often available only to the rich who were able to hire divorce lawyers. Many poor people found themselves trapped in failed marriages because they couldn’t get divorced without hiring a lawyer.
No Fault Divorce under Threat
Even though New York is the last state to adopt no fault divorce, it is conceivable that no fault divorce could disappear in other states. Some social conservatives believe that no fault divorce laws make divorce too easy which undermines the family and hurts children.
A few social conservatives have tried to overturn no fault divorce laws or make divorce harder. Although there seems to be little popular support for these measures, they have been proposed in a number of states.
Future of Divorce
Since no-fault divorce is now legal in all fifty states it is doubtful there will be any major changes to divorce laws in the near future. Instead the state legislatures will probably let future decisions about divorce be made by the courts. If you are going through a divorce and live in Georgia, contact one of our GA divorce lawyers today.