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Grounds For Divorce in New Jersey

by Your Friendly Divorce

In New Jersey, husband or wife must be a resident of the state for at least one year prior to the filling of the action. The only exception to the one-year residency requirement is when the grounds for divorce are for adultery. In cases of adultery, the requirement is that at least, one spouse must be a New Jersey resident. In New Jersey, there are eight grounds or causes to file for divorce. The three most popular grounds are extreme cruelty, no-fault separation, and adultery. Remember, the grounds of extreme cruelty are just a “term of art” and it does not mean that your spouse was extremely cruel.

Irreconcilable Differences

If a couple has had irreconcilable differences for a period in excess of six months prior to filing a complaint, New Jersey law permits them to be divorced on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

No-Fault Divorce Cause of Action

Separation is New Jersey’s second no-fault ground for divorce. To quality under this grounds, both the husband and wife must have lived separately, in different houses (not only different rooms) for a period of at least eighteen consecutive months. Moreover, in order to qualify for the no-fault divorce, there must not be a reasonable exception of reconciliation. N.J. S. A. 2A:34-2A(d).

Fault Divorce Causes of Action

Extreme Cruelty: physical or mental cruelty that makes it improper of unreasonable to expect that individual to cohabitate with their spouse. NJSA 2A:34-2(c).

Adultery

The counts have held that “adultery exists when one spouse rejects the other by entering into personal intimate relationship with any other person, irrespective of the specific sexual acts performed; the rejection of the spouse coupled with out-of-marriage intimacy constitutes adultery.” New Jersey Court Rule 5:4-2 requires that the plaintiff in an adultery divorce case, state the name of the person with whom the offending conduct was committed. This person is known as the correspondent. If the name is not known, the person who files must give as much information as possible tending to describe the adulterer.

Desertion

Willful and continuous desertion by one party for a period of twelve or more months and proof that the parties have creased to cohabit as man and wife JJSA 2A:34-2(b). The parties may live in the same house. The Crucial element here is “as man and wife.” Thus, desertion may be claimed after twelve or more months of a lack of sexual relations satisfies the desertion cause.

Addiction

A dependency n a narcotic or other controlled, dangerous substance, or a habitual drunkenness for a period of twelve or more consecutive months immediately preceding the filing of the complaint. The use of alcohol and drugs was persistent and substantial.

Institutionalization

When one spouse has been institutionalized for mental illness for a period of twelve or more consecutive months subsequent to the marriage and preceding the filing of the complaint.

Imprisonment

A ground for divorce occurs when a spouse has been imprisoned for eighteen or more consecutive months after the marriage. The parties must not have resumed cohabitation after the imprisonment.

Deviant Sexual Conduct

Occurs if the defendant engages in deviant sexual conduct without the consent of the plaintiff spouse.

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