Sally and Henry have been separated (but not legally) for over a year and a half. About six months after physically leaving Henry, Sally had a relationship (sexually and emotionally.) After that ended, she had three more of these types of relationships and is now in a very serious one. Still married; going through the divorce process. If discovered, to these “relationships” have any bearing on the outcome of a hearing and the distribution of assets or is it a non-issue? Henry removed all of the joint money out of the account shortly before… Hope this makes enough sense for someone to attempt an answer.
IANAL, but surely adultery is only relevant if it is cited as the cause for the divorce. It doesn’t sound like this is the case, if they separated by mutual consent for some other reason?
And even if Henry decided to cite it as the reason for the ultimate divorce, I don’t see how it would affect distribution of assets. I wasn’t aware that the courts took on board the reason for a divorce when deciding these things. (“Hey, you split through mutual irreconcilable differences? Here, have half. Wait, you were an adulterer?? Bastard, hand over 3/4”). Divorce is a legal, dispassionate separation and division of assets, not a moral judgement.
Thank you. That seems right to me, as well. Enjoy your day!
In some locations, it may help expedite proceedings: there’s places where for some reason divorce on grounds other than “we both want out” is faster than mutual agreement; there’s even locations where “mutual agreement” isn’t in the books. The speed difference may not even be directly linked to the laws, but be caused because judges are more likely to try a “awww, hug and make up” approach in mutual agreement cases.
IANAL, IANYL, this is based on divorce histories from friends in Spain, under several different editions of divorce laws and several judges.
If it’s a No Fault state, it doesn’t matter. The scenario you described is almost like that of my parent’s, but my mom’s affairs didn’t change the outcome any since they live in a NF state. Heck, even though she hadn’t had a job in a decade and could never hold one in her current state, was a junkie, abandoned her kids, and had a new boyfriend every other month the courts still awarded her half of everything.
Not saying that you are any of these, I’m just trying to show that the courts didn’t even look at the qualities you would think count against her. Like SanVito said, the courts handle it according to the state’s law, not with a moral bias.
Many thanks, everyone.
Aah yeah, it’s like that in the UK. My ex and I divorced through mutual agreement, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ and we had to legally wait 2 years after separation to get a divorce this way, presumably because the law hopes you might kiss and make up. If the cause cited is adultery or unreasonable behaviour, then the plaintive can push for a ‘quickie’ divorce, roughly 6 months from separation.
Just a reminder – getting advice from anonymous folks on a message board should never be a substitute for talking to a professional who is aware of the specifics of your situation.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
FWIW, from the time the papers were served to the time that the divorce went through for my parents was just about 6 months. IANAL, YMMV and all that jazz.
Yup. I wanted the quickie version, so coughed to adultery (poor choice of words here) - which meant no need to wait 2 years. And it’s common to specify “adultery with a person (or persons) unknown” - so that there is no Co-Respondent who has to be named in the papers. It’s always surprised me why there aren’t more people who take this route, whatever the reality.
Oh, absolutely.
I know someone who did. She’s still trying to convince her mother that NO, neither of them cheated on the other! For Christ’s sake, woman, we simply realized we could not live together, we get on each other’s nerves too badly when we spend too much time together! No, Mom, I did not cheat on him. No, Mom, he did not cheat on me. Because we needed to give a reason for the divorce, “we’d rather go our separate ways” wasn’t acceptable. If we’d done it now we wouldn’t have had to do it, nowadays it would just be a matter of one of us moving out (with proof) and the other one filing for divorce six months later. No, damnit, I did NOT cheat on him, AAAARGH! Bye Mom, see you next week if I don’t come by first to strangle you, that is.
Sally gets around.