Do you feel that "No Fault" divorces have led to the rise in divorce numbers? - see details below?

Question

No Fault divorces are easy as pie to get and the blame falls on neither person. Are irreconcilable differences, which are neither ones fault another piece of the puzzle. Is it the easy way we can attain divorces or is it the decline put on the seriousness of marriage and staying married? Where did soul mates and true love go?

Answer 1

Over the years (21) we've had many 'irreconcilable' differences. It's painful to sort them, but far worse to let them fester until they cause bitterness and words are spoken + confidences broken, third parties invited to take sides etc, etc, until even every shred of affection have evaporated.
Your point about soul mates & true love is the basis behind the whole institution.
(That is not me recognising there are marriages which should never have taken place.)

Answer 2

I work in family law as a paralegal. The notion that no-fault divorces make divorce "easy as pie" is a common misconception. Almost all our clients go through no-fault divorces. Depending on the circumstances, they can spend a lot of money and go through emotional hell when they enter the divorce process. Sometimes one wants a divorce, and the other doesn't. Sometimes they have kids. Sometimes they have a family business that they have to figure out how to split up. Almost always, they each have deep-seated resentments against the other spouse. They are angry, confused, and bitter. I see people in the worst emotional state of their entire lives. To say that they are going through a process that is "easy as pie," as if they're tripping happily through the flowery field of divorce, does them a great injustice.

So what should we do? Force them to stay married, if they can't find a legal "fault" as grounds for divorce? That's what we used to do, before no-fault divorce. Do you think that making two people stay married when they don't want to be around each other will somehow bring back "true love"? I don't.

Answer 3

Good question, but no, I don't feel that just because many states have opted for no-fault divorces, has caused tehr rise in divorce rates. I've worked as a legal assistant for many years in family law and the biggest reasons for divorces these days is infidelity. One or the other cheats and that ruins the marriage.

Soul mates and true love take a lot of work. Americans in general have become lazy and tend to take their spouses for granted. Work hard on your relationship and you will earn dividends and stay away from the divorce courts.

Answer 4

Of course it did, and the statistics show it, in the 1980's when 44 states adopted the "no fault" divorce law, divorce rate's skyrocketed. It just made it easier for those who couldn't prove wrong doing on the others behalf to divorce. But divorce its self is as old as marriage.
My great grandmother divorced her first husband, and her mother in-law was the one that paid for it, because her son wouldn't get a job and stay sober. Then she married my great grandfather and they were together till he passed, then she married again.

Answer 5

Yes, it waay to easy to get married and even easier to just call it a no go.

Laws need to be upgraded. Here it takes I believe two months for a divorce to become final...I think it should take a bit longer. Give people the time to think or at least try to save the relationship.

I also think it shoud be mandantory that you seek council before u just up and run off....

If ur cheating...you should serve a six month sentence...

I bet u that will stop people from getting married for the hell of it..and splitting up cause they can.

Answer 6

There are far too many reasons why couples divorce to blame it all on no fault. True love goes out the window when one spouse is beating the crap out of the other one. However if you get into such a marriage feel free to stick around and let your parnter beat you to death...IF you find a TRUE soul mate there would be no divorce because soulmates are two of one. Obviously if there's a divorce going on it wasn't your soulmate.

Of course there is infedelity. Would you WANT to stay married to a man who may have contracted HPV or HIV and when he has sex with you transfer it to you? Not to mention the other forms of STDS. If you want one of them...feel free to stay married when you partner phucks around.

Then there is the money issue, would YOU want to remain married to someone who sunk the two of you so far into debt that you have to file bankruptcy every few years? I know a woman who drove her family into debt so many times that they had to claim chapter 7 TWICE and just filed for chapter 13 this year. And just like marital assets, debt is part of the marital division, if one can't pay the bills then the creditors start going after the other partner. Would you like YOUR paycheck garnished because your parnter ran up such debt that he/she can't pay? Or would you like the creditors suing you for everything of value in order to pay off your debts? Again feel free to stick with someone who spends and spends and spends with NOTHING to spend.

Answer 7

I feel that what's led to the rise in divorces is people go into a marriage with the mindset, what will I get out of it, not thinking what can I do to make my partner happy.