Marc Alan Chase Family Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Filing for Divorce in New Jersey

Friday, February 27, 2009 by Marc Alan Chase

In order to file for divorce in New Jersey, both parties involved must have been residents of the state for at least a year. The only exception to this is when filing divorce on the grounds of adultery, in which case the only requirement is that one of the parties must be a resident of the state.

A New Jersey divorce is filed by into one of two distinct categories: Fault and No-Fault. In NJ, the only ground for no-fault divorce is separation, with the husband and wife living in two separate residences for a period of at least eighteen months.

There are eight distinct causes of action for a fault divorce in New Jersey, which your Hackensack divorce lawyer can detail in full.  Among the two most frequent fault causes for divorce in New Jersey is adultery and extreme cruelty.  NJ courts have ruled that adultery exists when “one spouse who rejects the other by entering into a personal intimate relationship with any other person, irrespective of the specific sexual acts performed." Extreme cruelty can include any physical or mental abuse which makes it improper or unreasonable to expect the individual to continue cohabitating with their spouse. New Jersey tends to have a very liberal slant when defining the type of conduct that constitutes extreme cruelty.

If you believe that you have grounds to file for divorce or separation in New Jersey, please contact a Bergen County divorce attorney today to discuss your legal options.

Chase and Chase Attorneys at Law
1 Atlantic St
Hackensack, NJ 07601
866-778-7183

Posted at 14:12 PM
Topic: Family Law
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