A no fault divorce allows a dissolution of marriage requires neither party to show wrong doing on the part of the other party nor any evidence of any wrong doing. The divorce is granted upon petition to a family court by either party.

This form of divorce does not require the petitioner to show that the respondent is at fault. This concept was pioneered by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The 1918 Decree on Divorce eliminated religious marriage as well as the underlying the ecclesiastical law. The structure was replaced with civil marriage which was sanctioned by the state. Divorces were granted by appealing to a state office.

In the United States, no fault divorce came about in the early 1970s. There was widespread disgust among both lawyers and judges over the legal fiction and friction that was so common. For example, in New York, there were arranged affairs. The husband and wife which wanted a divorce would arrange for the wife to walk in on her husband and her supposed mistress at a pre-determined time. She would then tell her sob story, carefully guided by a lawyer, in court. In California, many wives would testify that their husbands were “cruel.” They too would sit on the stand and cry their eyes out over the supposed cruelty they had to face at the hands of their husbands. Lawyers and judges everywhere were disgusted by the widespread presence of perjury and felt that the American justice system’s legitimacy was at risk.

Part of the problem was that, prior to reform, divorce could only be obtained by showing that one party was at fault. This went beyond merely not loving one another. One party had to plead that the other had committed adultery, abandonment, felony, or some other culpable act.

California, in 1969, passed the Family Law Act of 1970 which pioneered no fault divorce in the United States. The law was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan in 1969 and became effective January 1, 1970. The law abolished common law action for divorce. It also created the concept of “irreconcilable differences”. This made it much easier to obtain a divorce in California.

By 1983, all but 2 states ( New York and South Dakota) had adopted no fault divorce statutes. Today, New York is the only state without a statute creating irreconcilable differences and no fault.

For more information on divorce laws in California, please visit http://divorcelawyerssandiego.com/.

Joseph Devine

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