Grounds For Divorce

Marriage and Family law matters are governed by State law, not Federal law. Each state has its own laws, although there is remarkable uniformity throughout the states, and indeed all countries. O.C.G.A. 19-5-3 (2010) provides as follows:

The following grounds shall be sufficient to authorize the granting of a total divorce:

(1) Intermarriage by persons within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity;

(2) Mental incapacity at the time of the marriage;

(3) Impotency at the time of the marriage;

(4) Force, menace, duress, or fraud in obtaining the marriage;

(5) Pregnancy of the wife by a man other than the husband, at the time of the marriage, unknown to the husband;

(6) Adultery in either of the parties after marriage;

(7) Willful and continued desertion by either of the parties for the term of one year;

(8) The conviction of either party for an offense involving moral turpitude, under which he is sentenced to imprisonment in a penal institution for a term of two years or longer;

(9) Habitual intoxication;

(10) Cruel treatment, which shall consist of the willful infliction of pain, bodily or mental, upon the complaining party, such as reasonably justifies apprehension of danger to life, limb, or health;

(11) Incurable mental illness. (see details in the statute);
(12) Habitual drug addiction, which shall consist of addiction to any controlled substance as defined in Article 2 of Chapter 13 of Title 16;

(13) The marriage is irretrievably broken. Under no circumstances shall the court grant a divorce on this ground until not less than 30 days from the date of service on the respondent.

Note that Georgia does not require a finding of fault for divorce.  The 13th ground, that “The marriage is irretrievably broken,” was added in 1973.  A subsequent opinion of the Georgia Supreme Court in Harwell v. Harwell, 233 Ga. 89, 209 S.E. 2d 625 (1974), clarified that the new 13th ground for divorce did not imply fault. The Court stated:

Proof of Fault is not required to show that a marriage is irretrievably broken.” […] The parties […] merely state that that their marital differences are insoluble and request a change of status. The only question is whether there are prospects for reconciliation.

Several practical considerations follow from the 13th ground for divorce. (1) If one party wants a divorce, there will be a divorce even if the other spouse doesn’t want a divorce; and (2) the parties can get an uncontested divorce, which is faster, less expensive and doesn’t even require a court appearance.