Divorce
Through the end of 2006, in order to file for divorce in New Jersey people had to either live in different homes for 18 months or than file for divorce thereafter based upon the 18 months separation, or else they needed to allege actual “grounds” for divorce. Those “grounds” could be adultery perhaps, but most people chose to file for divorce based upon an allegation of “extreme cruelty” committed by their spouses. By filing for divorce based upon actions that one spouse claims the other spouse did to him or her that caused the filing spouse to be able to file based upon “extreme cruelty,” the non-filing spouse is immediately put in a defensive position and feels, more often than not, attacked. This then causes the non-filing spouse to often file a counterclaim, also based upon “extreme cruelty”, at which time the defendant alleges the extreme cruelty that he or she feels his or her spouse committed against him. Meanwhile, these people are expected to continue functioning as housemates very often and even more often as parents to children.
The entire process of divorcing in New Jersey just became a whole lot more civil effective January, 2007 with the passage of the “irreconcilable differences” statute. The “irreconcilable differences” statute puts an end to all of that for those people who wish to get divorced based upon irreconcilable differences, and simply requires the parties to certify that they have irreconcilable differences between them and have had so for a period of time leading up to the filing of the divorce complaint.
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