Thursday, March 9, 2017

No-Fault versus Fault Divorce in Connecticut


Kieran J. Costello is a partner in the Law Offices of Costello, Brennan, and DeVidas in Fairfield, Connecticut. Attorney Costello focuses his practice on personal injury and family law, including divorces, child custody matters and support cases.

Connecticut is a no-fault state with regard to divorce. This means that neither party is required to assign blame to the other for the marriage's dissolution. One way to file for a no-fault divorce is to claim an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. This simply means that both parties must assert that there is no chance for reconciliation. Although both of these options are available in the state of Connecticut, some parties do choose to apply for a fault divorce. This requires one of the spouses to claim there are one or more specified grounds for divorce, which range from adultery or willful abandonment to acts of intolerable cruelty, such as physical abuse. A spouse also has grounds for divorce if his or her partner is confined to a mental institution for more than five years or is imprisoned for a particular crime, especially any that draws a sentence of life imprisonment.