Raccoon tacos are one of the easiest recipes you can follow to put the masked Virginian critters to good use. And as raccoon tacos indicate, “easiest” is not always ideal. In the case of Virginia divorces, though, the easiest divorce may also be the best fit for most Virginia men: the uncontested, no-fault divorce.
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- The Fastest Divorce Possible
- Fault Grounds For Divorce
- What is a No-Fault Divorce?
- What is the Easiest Divorce?
- How Fast is a No-Fault Divorce?
The Fastest Divorce Possible
Easy divorce is not always fastest.
The fastest Virginia divorce reduces or limits the waiting period for divorce. To do that, though, one spouse has to accuse the other of something truly heinous, something worse than eating a raccoon taco.
Fault Grounds For Divorce
We refer of course to the fault grounds for divorce, listed in Virginia Code § 20-91:
- Adultery
- Sodomy or buggery committed outside the marriage
- Felony conviction resulting in a year or longer of incarceration
- Cruelty
- Causing “reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt”
- Willful desertion or abandonment
If either spouse is proven to commit adultery, a divorce can be immediate. We mean immediate: the judge hears the evidence, finds a spouse committed adultery, and decrees the marriage is over. Gavel down, case closed.
Proving adultery is extremely risky, however. It also casts an indelible stain across at least two lives. Many attorneys are hesitant to pursue a fault-grounds divorce based on adultery charges.
If either spouse is proven to commit items 2-6, a divorce can be granted one year after commission of the heinous act (not the filing date).
Again, though, fault grounds are nasty stuff. A good family law attorney will only pursue fault grounds if they are readily provable by a preponderance of evidence from independent witnesses like EMTs or law enforcement officers, not from relatives or from one of the parties to the suit.
So the fastest route to divorce in Virginia is not the easiest route. That leaves no-fault divorce as the easiest. And no-fault divorce comes in two flavors, though one flavor is as appealing as a raccoon taco.
What is a No-Fault Divorce?
A no-fault divorce ascribes no wrongdoing to either spouse. You both realize the marriage has fizzled and that is nobody’s fault. Two people found out they were not the perfect match. Oh, well.
A no-fault divorce can be contested or uncontested. Let’s knock out the contested, no-fault divorce first. A contested, no-fault divorce is like asking for extra gristle in your raccoon taco. It is a rare and unpleasant pursuit:
- You and your spouse agree the marriage is over
- But one of you has an overwhelming urge to nitpick every little thing written into the settlement agreement
For childless couples, the two big sticking points are spousal support and property division. If you have children from the marriage, three huge areas to settle are child custody, child support, and parenting time schedules.
Rarely, a couple without kids can agree the marriage has all the appeal of the aforementioned raccoon tacos but cannot agree on dividing property and spousal support. Then you have a no-fault, contested divorce. You have an expensive headache that enriches two law offices (one for each spouse). The process can drag on for months and months and months.
So … What is the Easiest Divorce?
The easiest Virginia divorce is the no-fault, uncontested divorce. The two spouses agree the marriage is over (no-fault) and agree on every part of the property settlement agreement.
Sure, they may have to hash out some things in private, away from their attorneys, but they present a unified front when in conference.
One spouse gets the marital house, the other spouse gets the fishing boat. One gets the Elvis paintings, the other gets the NASCAR glassware. And both agree to burn the raccoon taco recipe.
Neither spouse contests, or argues against, all the details such as distribution of retirement accounts, parenting time, temporary spousal support, and division of real estate.
How Fast is a No-Fault Divorce?
The waiting period for all no-fault divorce is the same:
- Six months if the two of you have no children
- One year if your marriage produced children (either in the usual way or through adoption)
After that waiting period, one of the two attorneys submits the suit for divorce, including in it the separation agreement that spells out all the nitty-gritty details. A Circuit Court judge may need between three weeks and two months to prepare the final divorce decree. The decree is the end of the process.
No attorney can speed up a court’s calendar, so beware ads for “quick Virginia divorce.” To learn more about your divorce options, contact The Firm For Men today, or call our Virginia Beach office at (757) 383-9184. We can present you with all your options and then craft the separation and divorce best suited to your needs. And we respectfully request you leave the raccoon tacos at home.