Simple English definitions for legal terms
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No-fault divorce is a way to end a marriage without having to prove that one person did something wrong. Instead, one person can say that the marriage isn't working and that's enough to get a divorce. This is different from the old way of getting a divorce, which required someone to prove that their spouse did something bad like cheating or being mean. No-fault divorce is now allowed in all states and it's usually faster and less public than the old way of getting a divorce.
No-fault divorce is a type of divorce where a person can end their marriage without having to prove that their spouse did something wrong. In the past, people had to show that their spouse was cruel, committed adultery, or deserted them in order to get a divorce. But with no-fault divorce, the person filing for divorce only needs to say that the marriage has broken down and they can't get along anymore.
For example, if a couple has been arguing a lot and can't seem to work things out, one of them can file for a no-fault divorce. They don't have to prove that the other person did something wrong, they just need to say that the marriage isn't working.
No-fault divorce is now recognized in all states, and many have adopted pure no-fault divorce where fault divorces are no longer allowed. This means that a person can only get a divorce by claiming that the marriage has broken down and they can't get along anymore.
There are some benefits to no-fault divorce. It is more private because the couple doesn't have to share the intimate details of their marriage in court. However, fault divorces can result in greater shares of the marital property or more alimony for the filing spouse than a no-fault divorce.
No-fault divorce became popular in the 1970s as an alternative to the tactics of perjury and forum-shopping employed by some unhappy couples to bypass their state's fault divorce laws. However, critics of pure no-fault divorce blame it for many social ills, including rising divorce rates, increased bad marital behavior and domestic violence, and the destruction of the concept of mutual interdependence that was traditionally central to marriage.