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What it shouldn't do is punish the person who wasn't at fault (i.e. spouse has affair and files for divorce, you pay alimony).
But it's "no fault".
Alimony is to help a non-self-sufficient person stay off welfare until he or she is employed or has an income. Taxpayers don't want to pay your ex welfare.
Nothing wrong with no fault divorce. It is a way to free up resources and expedite divorces. No need to have long drawn out trails. No need to airing of dirty laundry or showing fault.
If every divorce were required to go to trial it would add coats to both parties. All is which is unnecessary. If a trial is required because an agreement cannot be reached, that is fine.
No, it did not cheapen the whole notion of marriage. Divorce rates have been trending downwards since the early 90s. Alimony is not punishment. I tend to think it isn't as useful as it was 40 years ago. But it is still being used, fine.
Don't presume to know what lies behind the closed marital bedroom door. There are many more reasons to get divorce other than cheating. And some of us chose to take a higher road than try and drag another person's life through the mud. People fall out of love. It happens. For many varied and personal NUNYA reasons. I was as surprised as anyone else. Actually as no one else who knew him was...
I chose a no fault divorce because it was cheaper and I didn't want to drag our families through all that business.
But the truth is, he had an affair, and I had actionable evidence. So in my case, the absence of no-fault would only have meant that we would have spent more money on our divorce. Could he have argued that I was somehow incompetent as a wife? Maybe. I was the one asking for counseling and he refused. But infidelity would have trumped anything he could have thrown at me .
Plus, we split every thing 50/50, as directed by the court in a no fault divorce. If I had sued him for adultery, I could have gotten a lot more. So in that case no fault protected him.
And to be honest? Even if no fault divorce didn't exist, wouldn't people just split up anyway? This is the 21st century...
Too bad we lived in NY at the time, because I would have LOVED to have sued his lady friend for Alienation of Affection!
I was absolutely prepared to file under Mental Cruelty and it was my lawyer who advised me to file as a No Fault divorce to make the whole process easier.
No Fault doesn't mean there was no fault involved.
What it shouldn't do is punish the person who wasn't at fault (i.e. spouse has affair and files for divorce, you pay alimony).
But it's "no fault".
Alimony is pretty rare these days, rich and famous excluded. It was intended as a means to not leave a woman reduced to a life of poverty in the days when women did not/could not work and earn enough to support herself and children. Back in the day when few women got an education or had a career but married shortly out of school and devoted her life to being a housewife and mother. Today most women work and earn a comparable wage. So alimony isn't really an issue.
As well, although most go the no fault route one can file on fault charge. The reason many don't is because it can get very expensive and drawn out, you know as one must prove fault.
So if you marry and your wife cheats on you, you can file fault charges. Whether this voids any alimony, IDK, but if you marry your equal who shares in the financial responsibility of marriage and you share in the domestic/parenting responsibilities there shouldn't be an alimony issue anyway as there would not be a significant difference in earnings.
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