Divorce Grounds, Jurisdiction and Procedure: every key term you need (+ practice quiz)
25 flashcard terms for Family Law Topic 3, written to match the course framework. Study them here, then drill them as interactive flashcards, or test yourself with the 15-question quiz — free, no account needed.
Dissolution granted on irretrievable breakdown or irreconcilable differences without proving marital misconduct, now available in every state and the dominant filing basis.
Irretrievable breakdown
The prevailing no-fault ground, satisfied by one spouse's sworn assertion that the marriage cannot be repaired; most courts will not second-guess that testimony.
Living separate and apart
A no-fault ground requiring the spouses to live in separate households, usually for a statutory period, with at least one intending the separation to be permanent.
Adultery
A fault ground consisting of voluntary sexual intercourse with someone other than the spouse, ordinarily proved circumstantially by opportunity plus inclination.
Cruelty
A fault ground covering physical or mental conduct that endangers health or makes cohabitation unsafe or intolerable; isolated incidents rarely suffice.
Desertion
A fault ground requiring voluntary departure without consent or justification, an intent not to return, and continuation for the statutory period.
Constructive desertion
Treats the spouse whose misconduct forced the other to leave as the deserter, so the departing spouse retains a claim for divorce.
Recrimination
The traditional defense barring divorce when both spouses committed a marital offense; largely abolished as inconsistent with modern dissolution policy.
Connivance
A fault defense showing the complaining spouse consented to or procured the misconduct, most often the adultery now alleged as a ground.
Condonation
A defense based on forgiveness of a known marital offense, usually inferred from resumed cohabitation and conditioned on no repetition.
Collusion
An agreement between spouses to fabricate a ground or suppress a defense, historically a bar to divorce and now mostly irrelevant under no-fault regimes.
Divisible divorce
The rule that a state with jurisdiction over the marital status may dissolve the marriage yet lacks power to adjudicate support or property without personal jurisdiction.
Williams v. North Carolina
The pair of decisions establishing that a bona fide domicile supports an ex parte divorce entitled to full faith and credit, but permitting collateral attack on sham domicile.
Ex parte divorce
A dissolution obtained where only the petitioner appears, valid as to marital status if the forum was the petitioner's true domicile and notice was proper.
Estes v. Estes principle of estoppel
Courts bar a spouse who participated in or benefited from a foreign divorce from later attacking its validity, protecting reliance and finality.
Long-arm jurisdiction in divorce
Statutory authority to reach an absent spouse for support and property orders based on marital domicile in the state or other purposeful contacts.
Kulko v. Superior Court
Held that a father's consent to his child's move to California did not create minimum contacts sufficient for personal jurisdiction over him for support purposes.
Residency requirement for filing
A durational domicile prerequisite, commonly six weeks to one year, that a petitioner must satisfy before the court may dissolve the marriage.
Sosna v. Iowa
Upheld a one-year residency requirement for divorce, reasoning the state has a strong interest in avoiding intermeddling and ensuring decree recognition.
Boddie v. Connecticut
Held that due process forbids conditioning access to divorce court on filing fees an indigent litigant cannot pay, given the state monopoly over dissolution.
Separation agreement
A settlement contract resolving property, support, and parenting terms, usually incorporated into the decree and sometimes merged so it is enforced as a judgment.
Merger versus incorporation
Merger extinguishes the agreement into the decree, enabling contempt enforcement and modification, while incorporation preserves independent contract remedies.
Legal separation
A decree resolving support, property, and custody while leaving the marriage intact, often chosen for religious reasons or to preserve insurance benefits.
Bifurcation
Entering the divorce decree first and reserving financial or custody issues for later trial, permitted where dissolution should not await complex valuation disputes.
Divorce mediation
A facilitated negotiation in which a neutral helps the spouses craft their own agreement; increasingly mandated before contested hearings except in abuse cases.