No-Fault Divorce
What does "No-Fault Divorce" mean in law?
No-fault divorce is a dissolution of marriage that does not require either spouse to prove marital misconduct such as adultery, cruelty, or abandonment. Instead, the petitioning spouse need only assert that the marriage is irretrievably broken or that irreconcilable differences exist. California pioneered no-fault divorce in 1970, and every state now offers some form of it. The doctrine reflects a policy shift from viewing divorce as a remedy for wrongdoing to recognizing it as a private decision about the continuation of a relationship, though some jurisdictions still permit fault-based grounds as an alternative that may affect property division or alimony.
Definition
No-fault divorce is a dissolution of marriage that does not require either spouse to prove marital misconduct such as adultery, cruelty, or abandonment. Instead, the petitioning spouse need only assert that the marriage is irretrievably broken or that irreconcilable differences exist. California pioneered no-fault divorce in 1970, and every state now offers some form of it. The doctrine reflects a policy shift from viewing divorce as a remedy for wrongdoing to recognizing it as a private decision about the continuation of a relationship, though some jurisdictions still permit fault-based grounds as an alternative that may affect property division or alimony.
Example
After years of growing apart, Maria filed for no-fault divorce citing irreconcilable differences, meaning she did not need to prove that her husband had committed any specific wrongdoing to obtain the dissolution.