Fault Divorce in Bucks County

One of the grounds for divorce can be fault, which states, 

§ 3301.  Grounds for divorce.

(a)  Fault.--The court may grant a divorce to the innocent and injured spouse whenever it is judged that the other spouse has:

(1)  Committed willful and malicious desertion, and absence from the habitation of the injured and innocent spouse, without a reasonable cause, for the period of one or more years.

(2)  Committed adultery.

(3)  By cruel and barbarous treatment, endangered the life or health of the injured and innocent spouse.

(4)  Knowingly entered into a bigamous marriage while a former marriage is still subsisting.

(5)  Been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of two or more years upon conviction of having committed a crime.

(6)  Offered such indignities to the innocent and injured spouse as to render that spouse's condition intolerable and life burdensome.


Your Bucks County divorce lawyer should be wise to tell you that on April 2, 1980, Pennsylvania became the 48th state in the country to enact no-fault divorce legislation based on irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.  At the time, no-fault divorce was obtainable either on the mutual consent of the parties under Section 3301(c) or in the event of a three-year separation under Section 3301(d).  When the Divorce Code was overhauled on February 12 1988, the three-year separation requirement under Section 3301(d) was reduced to two years.  Over the past several years, attempts have been made in the General Assembly to reduce the separation period from two years to one year.  To date, these legislative efforts have been unsuccessful.