You sometimes hear people lament the fact that they don’t have a good reason to get divorced. They know that they want to end the marriage. They are no longer happy being married and they want to move on. But they also know that their spouse hasn’t done anything wrong, so they wonder if they even have a reason to move forward with the divorce proceedings.
If you find yourself in this position, keep in mind that you do not legally even need a reason for the divorce. You can get a no-fault divorce. This can be done even if your spouse doesn’t want to split up. You do not have to prove that they did anything wrong or that they caused the split. You can simply state that you believe the marriage is irretrievably broken and you would like to end it.
Are you asking the court for approval?
Some of the confusion over this comes from the fact that people believe they are petitioning the court to see if their divorce will be approved. They’re trying to prove that it is necessary so that it will be granted – as if the court could reject the petition and trap them in the marriage.
But modern courts aren’t generally approving divorce cases, at least not in this sense. Any couple can ask for a divorce, and the court’s job is more to guide the process. If you and your spouse can’t decide how to split up parenting time with your children, for instance, they can issue a child custody order. If you can’t decide how to split up your marital assets, the court can assist with property division under California law.
But none of this means that you need any sort of concrete reason, such as evidence that your spouse had an affair. You just need to know what legal steps to take to pursue the divorce you want.