Divorce

October 8, 2016

Posted by Heidi C. Noll
Posted in Areas of Practice

Do you have questions about navigating through a divorce?

What is a No-Fault Divorce?

Attorney Noll provides services for simple, no-fault divorces. In Pennsylvania, no-fault divorce is essentially when two people want to get divorced and neither party is blaming the other for the dissolution of the marriage. According to Pennsylvania law, if both parties are willing to divorce, a divorce decree may be obtained in as little as 90 days after filing. The most common grounds for a divorce action in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. On this basis a divorce decree may be acquired with consent 90 days after filing and service of a Divorce Complaint. If one party does not consent to the divorce, a no-fault divorce can be obtained if the spouses have been separated for over 2 years.

In Pennsylvania there is no such thing as a legal separation. It is presumed that the date one files for divorce is the date of separation unless you can prove otherwise. In some rare cases, spouses can prove to be separated even if they lived in the same home. The amount of time you have been separated can be important in some cases if you are looking to obtain a quick divorce.

The Law Office of Heidi C. Noll offers cost-effective solutions to help you obtain a no-fault divorce. When choosing a no-fault divorce, if both parties agree on the division of property, custody and support issues, there is generally a huge savings to both parties involved.

Fault Divorce

In Pennsylvania the spouse filing for divorce must state a ground for divorce in the divorce complaint. The divorce complaint is the initial document filed in the courts by one party. Grounds for divorce in Pennsylvania can be either no-fault or fault-based. Fault-based divorce in Pennsylvania is awarded to the “innocent and injured spouse.”

Some grounds for a fault-based divorce in Pennsylvania include when a spouse has:

Willfully deserted the marriage for a period greater than 1 year
Committed adultery
Endangered the life or health of the other spouse
Entered into a bigamous marriage
Been sentenced to prison for two or more years
Offered such indignities to the innocent spouse as to render that spouse’s condition and intolerable and life burdensome
Been institutionalized for reasons of insanity

Even though one spouse may be at fault, they may have reasons or defenses to the behavior. Common defenses used in these situations are provocation, condonation and insanity. Most divorces in Pennsylvania are filed as no-fault because of the emotional battle that often arises with the filing of a fault-based divorce. The grounds of a divorce have little to do with the distribution of property and alimony.