Divorce
Divorce
• The legal termination of marriage
• Dissolution of marriage
• Under English law, the only basis for divorce is
the irretrievable breakdown of marriage
• The official request to a court to end a marriage
is called divorce petition
Fault divorce
• Until 1969, most states required grounds for
divorce – the guilty party and the innocent party
• In England, divorce would be granted only to the
innocent party (petitioner) who could prove that
the other party (respondent) committed a
matrimonial offence
• Largely based on the church (ecclesiastical) law
Matrimonial offences
• Adultery
• Intolerable Cruelty
• Desertion
“Uncontested” divorce
• Both sides deliberately agreed that the wrongful
conduct would be claimed – even untruthfully
• Perjury – lying under oath
No-fault divorce
• After 1969
• Pioneered in the US by the State of California
with the passage of the Family Law Act of 1969
• The Act signed by Governor R. Reagan on
September 4, 1969 and became valid on
January 1, 1970
• Abolished the old common law for divorce
Grounds for no-fault divorce
• Less specific reasons, such as incompatibility or
irreconcilable differences
• The court decides how to divide communal
property and who gets custody of the children
• If one of the spouses is financially dependent on
the other, the court will usually order the other
one to pay alimony (AmE) or maintenance (BrE)
Elements of divorce
1. Dissolving the marriage – the formal legal process by
which the marriage is ended
2. Financial arrangements – the process of dividing up
the marital assets and agreeing on maintenance
3. Childcare arrangements – the process of deciding
who the children of the marriage will live with
(residency) and how much contact the non-resident
parent will have
Dissolving the marriage
• Petition for divorce
• Acknowledgement of service
• Obtain Decree Nisi
• Obtain Decree Absolute (after six weeks)
Financial arrangements
• Apply for Ancillary Relief
• Financial disclosure
• Negotiation
• Obtain financial court order
Childcare arrangements
• Agreement
• Application for residence and/or contact
• Investigation
• Residency court order
Divorce today
• In the UK, 40 % of marriages end in divorce
• In the USA almost 50 %
• Croatia – current statistics show that every fifth
marriages ends in divorce
Vocabulary
• Dissolution of marriage – razvrgnuće braka
• To file a divorce petition – podnijeti zahtjev za
razvod braka
• Petitioner – tužitelj u brakorazvodnoj parnici
• Decree of divorce – rješenje o rastavi braka
• No fault divorce, uncontested divorce –
sporazumni razvod braka
Vocabulary II
• Decree Nisi – privremeno rješenje o razvodu
braka
• Decree Absolute – pravomoćna presuda o
razvodu braka
• Ancillary relief – financijska pomoć kod razvoda
• Financial disclosure – iznošenje podataka o
financijama
Vocabulary exercise
• Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word(s) from the list below:
• grounds, separation, irretrievably, cohabitation, circumstances, respondent, family,
relief
• An action for _________________ or divorce begins by filing a signed and sworn
statement with the court indicating that sufficient grounds for __________ from
marriage exist. After the complaint is filed, it is served on the _______________,
who has time to file an answer to the complaint. The _____________ court can
issue a decree for divorce under a number of _________________. The court will
grant a divorce when the marriage is _____________ broken. The parties can also
get a divorce when there is no reasonable likelihood that _________________ will
resume and the court is satisfied it would not be harsh or contrary to the public
interest to grant the divorce on the ____________ requested.
Answer key
• An action for SEPARATION or divorce begins by filing a signed
and sworn statement with the court indicating that sufficient
grounds for RELIEF from marriage exist. After the complaint is
filed, it is served on the RESPONDENT, who has time to file an
answer to the complaint. The FAMILY court can issue a decree
for divorce under a number of CIRCUMSTANCES. The court will
grant a divorce when the marriage is IRRETRIEVABLY broken.
The parties can also get a divorce when there is no reasonable
likelihood that COHABITATION will resume and the court is
satisfied it would not be harsh or contrary to the public interest to
grant the divorce on the GROUNDS requested.