Introduction
Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse. Divorce existed in antiquity, dating at least back to ancient Mesopotamia and was granted only because one party to the marriage had violated a sacred vow to the “innocent spouse. Divorce before the 1920’s was based on the husband not providing ‘life’ necessities’ for his child and wife.
Often, however, the spouses disagree about the terms of the divorce, which can lead to stressful and expensive litigation. Divorce mediation is an alternative to traditional divorce litigation. Divorce mediation can be significantly less expensive than litigation.
Divorce
Less adversarial approaches to divorce settlements have recently emerged, such as mediation and collaborative divorce, which negotiate mutually acceptable resolution to conflicts.
No Fault Divorce
Under a no-fault divorce system the dissolution of a marriage does not require an allegation or proof of fault of either party to be shown. Common reasons for no-fault divorce include: incompatibility, irreconcilable differences, and irremediable breakdown of the marriage. Forty-nine of the United States have adopted no-fault divorce laws. Fault divorces used to be the only way to break a marriage, and people who had differences only had the option to separate (and were prevented from legally remarrying). Fault divorce can affect the distribution of property, and will allow an immediate divorce, in states where there is a waiting period required for no-fault divorce.