No-fault divorce means that neither party has to prove that someone did something wrong in order to get a divorce.
Simply put:
- One spouse has to have lived in Illinois more than 90 days.
- The waiting period is final when entered “subject to a right of appeal”.
- A No-Fault divorce is granted when the marriage has an ‘irretrievable breakdown
There are still other grounds for divorce in Illinois: Adultery; cruelty or violence; willful desertion for 1 yr.; drug/alcohol addiction for 2 yrs.; impotency; unexplained absence; conviction of a crime; venereal disease; 2 yr. separation by irreconcilable differences; undissolved prior marriage, attempted murder of a spouse. For all of Illinois’ history, it was necessary to prove that someone broke the marital trust in order to get a divorce. The new No-Fault Laws reduce that down to simply, “It’s broken and we can’t fix it.”
The No-Fault filing, though, tends to speed things up. It just says that the marriage is broken, not that one or the other party broke it.
The waiting period is now down to months, not years for a divorce. It can be even faster if the divorce is uncontested, meaning that both sides agree to a divorce and the terms are relatively easy to figure out.
Even with no-fault laws in the books, divorce is something that shouldn’t be entered into lightly. Before considering divorce, it’s always best to try counseling, especially if there are children involved. The process is invariably painful and expensive.
Even if the divorce is granted “no-fault”, the laws regarding custody and child support will apply, so this isn’t a simple project when you have a family.
For more information about these new laws, please read this article from the Chicago Tribune.
Please give us a call if you have any questions about the state laws. All calls are confidential.
618 319 0265
dkay@dkaylaw.com