Divorce cases are rarely simple for a number of reasons, and if you do some legislative history research, you’ll find that there are more than a few legal statutes out there making things more perplex. Here are just a few.
Blaming a Third Party.
Believe it or not, seven states including New Mexico and Mississippi have legal statutes that make it possible to blame the breakdown of a marriage on a third person, who can even be sued for huge sums of money so long as there’s proof. This is called the “alienation of affection” theory.
Making Divorce Illegal.
In the more than 200 years since the Constitution was first created, there have been a total of 27 constitutional amendments, but there were almost more. For about 60 years, members of Congress tried to regulate marriage and divorce by introducing a constitutional amendment that would do just that. Even President Teddy Roosevelt lobbied for Congress to give itself such powers. Fortunately, three-fourths of the states must ratify the proposed amendment after it makes it all the way through Congress for it to become a law.
Agreeing to Disagree.
There’s a law in New York state with the legislative intent of actually making it easier to divorce. The legal statute allows a couple who can’t agree on anything to get a divorce based on their irreconcilable differences. The irony of the situation is that in order to get a divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, they need to at least agree that the marriage didn’t work.
Not Playing Nice With the In-Laws.
Parents can be a drag, especially when they’re your significant other’s. Unfortunately, if dealing with them gets a little too difficult, you can’t use it as a reason to get a divorce in Wichita, Kansas. The reverse is also true — you can’t divorce someone there if the spouse treated the petitioner’s parents poorly, either.
If you’ve ever found some weird divorce rules in your own law research, feel free to share them in the comments.