Pennsylvania Divorce Law

The Pennsylvania divorce law allow for two major grounds for divorce on a No Fault basis. One of these is the situation in which both spouses agree to the divorce and both file an agreement through the court process. 90 days after this takes place, a divorce can occur if both spouses still consent to it. The other No Fault grounds for divorce is when the spouses can demonstrate that they have been separated for two years or more with no chance of repairing the marriage.

There are also six grounds accommodated by the Pennsylvania divorce law based on a fault on the part of one of the spouses. These are limited to the following:

Another grounds for divorce is mistreatment that makes the suffering spouse's life intolerable.

Pennsylvania Divorce Law
To put these factors into plain English, you can file for a divorce if your partner treats you in a way that severely damages your quality of life, either mentally or physically. You can get a legitimate divorce if your spouse is cheating on you or if your spouse leaves you for no good reason for over a year. And you can get a divorce if you discover that your spouse was already married to someone else when you took your vows.

These are the circumstances under which you can file for divorce in Pennsylvania. Keep in mind also that there are some residency requirements that have to be met before you can file: you or your spouse needs to have been a resident in Pennsylvania for six continuous months before the case is filed, otherwise it will be deemed to be outside the authority of the Pennsylvania courts to deal with.

Once the grounds for divorce are established and the case goes ahead, there are several other important concerns that are dealt with by the Pennsylvania divorce law. One of these is the distribution of shared property between you and your spouse. It's best to try to come to an agreement with your spouse on the issues of property distribution and child custody if at all possible. You can use a lawyer to mediate this process if it helps.

If it's not possible to work the issue out peacefully with your spouse, the decision of how property will be divided up will be left up to a judge, who will attempt to distribute the property and assets between you based on what he or she believes is fair based on the facts of the case. Be aware that the grounds for divorce can play a role in property distribution, so if you are at fault in the break-up of the marriage you may find yourself coming out of the divorce with what seems like less than your fair share.

Other factors that may influence the distribution of assets include your relative personal wealth to your spouse and potential for future income. It can also depend on factors like the age of each spouse and the length of the marriage. Thus the way property is divided can vary significantly from case to case - it's not necessarily a "half and half" division.

The other factor that concerns everyone who goes into a divorce situation with children is how the kids will be treated by the court system. It's a frightening thought for many parents to consider that a judge you've never met may restrict your ability to see your children.

The goods news is, one of the major factors taken into account by the courts when deciding who will have custody is which parent seems most likely to make the effort to maintain the relationship between the child and the other parent. That means that even if you don't win custody, your spouse is obligated to help you maintain contact with the children - unless the court rules that you should not be allowed visiting rights, due to the possibility that you may do the kids harm.

Pennsylvania Divorce Law
If you have no history of violence or alcoholism and no criminal record, this should not be a concern in your case. The guiding principle here is the best interests of the child - as long as you and your lawyer can make it clear in court that your being granted visitation or custody rights is in the child's best interests, you have a good chance of guaranteeing continued contact with your kids.

SBI!