What are grounds for divorce?
Massachusetts is a no-fault state, which means that spouses may obtain a divorce without specifying grounds such as desertion or cruel and abusive treatment. Spouses may jointly file an uncontested divorce action along with a separation agreement, or one spouse may file a contested divorce action. In both types of divorce, the ground specified may be an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. In an uncontested divorce action may also be obtained on fault grounds, which are specified by statute. G.L. c. 208, 1B.
New York is one of the few states requiring grounds for divorce. They are adultery, cruel and inhuman treatment (not incompatablity), abandonment for more than a year or the confinement to prison of the Defendant for three or more consecutive years. The failure to have sexual relations with a spouse for more than a year constitutes abandonment. No fault divorce is permitted in New York after the parties have been separated for more than a year pursuant to a properly executed written agreement of separation.
The most common ground for a divorce in Texas is essentially a “no-fault divorce”. The legal terminology used in court is that the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroy the legitimate ends of the marriage and there is no reasonable ground for reconciliation.
