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Grounds for
Divorce in Maryland:
In Maryland you
can be granted a Limited Divorce and/or an
Absolute Divorce. A Limited Divorce is used to
obtain the temporary relief sometimes needed
immediately after separation. For example your
spouse has left the home and is not paying
toward rent, food, alimony, child support, etc.,
and you need money now. You can file for a
limited divorce and you do not have to wait for
the normal one year separation. You can file
immediately. An Absolute divorce in Maryland
requires that you stay separate and aprt from
your spouse for one year before you can file the
complaint for absolute divorce. The only
exceptions are if your spouse is committing
adultery or treating you with excessively
vicious conduct. The absolute divorce is the
final divorce and addresses all the issues of
the marriage, including, custody, visitation,
child support, use and possession, alimony,
equitable distribution of marital property and
counsel fees.
The grounds which are available for a Limited
Divorce are:
Desertion;
your spouse left the marital home with the
intention of ending the marriage.
Constructive Desertion; you left the
marital home because your spouse made it
impossible for you to continue living in the
home with your health happiness and self respect
intact. NEW development in Maryland Divorce law
now allow you to stay in the home and still seek
a limited divorce. The case is called
Ricketts v Ricketts. You must prove that you
and your spouse have lived in separate bedrooms
and not engaged in a marital relationship.
Voluntary Separation:
you and your spouse agreed it was time to end
the marriage and your spouse left the marital
home.
The grounds available for an Absolute Divorce
are:
Adultery; is
defined as sexual intercourse with some one from
the opposite sex that is not your spouse. It is
proven by evidence of propensity to commit
adultery and opportunity. A person who commits
adultery can not be compelling to testify
against themselves for any act occurring with in
one year. Adultery can be proven my admission of
the adulterous party only under circumstances
where the case is hotly contested and there are
no indications of collusion.
Desertion;
your spouse left
the marital home with the intention of ending
the marriage and you and
your spouse have remained separate and apart for
one year and there is no hope you will ever get
back together again.
Constructive Desertion:
you left the marital home because
your spouse made it impossible for you to
continue living in the home with your health
happiness and self respect intact. And you and
your spouse have remained separate and apart for
one year and there is no hope you will ever get
back together again.
Excessively Vicious Conduct. In
a divorce in Maryland under Family Law §
7-103 (a) (7) & (8) the Court may decree an
absolute divorce based upon cruelty of treatment
toward the complaining party or a minor child of
the complaining party, if there is no reasonable
hope of reconciliation or if there is
excessively vicious conduct toward the
complaining party or a minor child of the
complaining party, if there is no reasonable
expectation of reconciliation.
The Court defined excessively vicious conduct
and cruelty in the matter of
Das v.
Das, 133 Md. App. 1, 754 A.2d 441 (2000).
In
Das the Court held in pertinent part that
cruelty as a cause for divorce includes any
conduct on the part of the husband or wife which
is calculated to seriously impair the health or
permanently destroy the happiness of the other.
As such the court continued any misconduct of a
husband that endangers, or creates a reasonable
apprehension that it will endanger, the wife's
safety or health to a degree rendering it
physically or mentally impracticable for her to
properly discharge the marital duties
constitutes cruelty within the meaning of the
divorce statute.
Voluntary Separation;
you and your
spouse agreed it was time to end the marriage
and your spouse left the marital home. And you and your spouse have
remained separate and apart for one year and
there is no hope you will ever get back together
again.
Conviction of a Felony;
Two Year Separation;
Insanity;
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