Often when Texas residents read entertainment news articles about their favorite celebrities’ divorces, they find terms like “irreconcilable differences” and “irretrievable breakdown” mentioned as the rationales for their marital splits. In some jurisdictions throughout the United States, individuals can pursue divorces based on these and other “no fault” grounds. In fact, Texas residents also have options for no fault divorces if they have been separated from their spouses for at least three years or if they can demonstrate that their marriages are insupportable due to discord in the relationships.
In Texas, though, people can still use fault grounds to rationalize their desires to end their legal relationships with their spouses. For example, adultery can be used as a fault ground to end a Texas marriage, and so too can cruelty or violence between the partners.
Texas courts will allow individuals to divorce their spouses if their spouses have been convicted of felonies and must spend at least one year in prison. Additional requirements may apply to this fault ground, though, and as with all legal proceedings readers who plan to use this or other fault grounds for their divorces are encouraged to discuss their plans with a family law attorney.
It is the choice of the person planning to file for divorce to decide whether they wish to use a fault ground or a no fault ground on which to base their pleading. Depending upon the path they take they may face challenges and defenses from their spouses, and many individuals who wish to divorce can benefit from discussing their cases with attorneys who represent individuals in the Texas family law courts. Though it can be difficult to make the divorce process easy, strong legal support can make a difficult legal situation more manageable.
