Divorce is often the result of someone behaving poorly. Whether they become physically abusive toward their spouse or start cheating, their actions are what push their marriage to the breaking point. There could also be many years of quiet irritation that slowly undermine the affection and mutual respect in the marital relationship.
If you have recently uncovered significant misconduct by your spouse, you may feel strongly that divorce is necessary for your own protection. You have likely heard stories about people who spend thousands of dollars hiring private detectives or hundreds of dollars paying for forensic accounting services. Will you need evidence of misconduct to file divorce paperwork in Nevada?
Nevada allows for no-fault divorces
While fault-based divorces were once the standard across the country, they were expensive, contentious and difficult to obtain. Nevada was actually one of the early adopters of no-fault divorce proceedings. Currently, Nevada does not even hear divorce cases based on fault.
Everyone divorcing in Nevada will pursue a no-fault divorce. The three reasons you can file for divorce are a separation of a year, insanity lasting for at least two years or incompatibility, which is the true no-fault reason for divorce.
Neither spouse has to have any evidence of infidelity or other misconduct to convince the courts to grant them a divorce. However, in some cases, evidence of specific forms of spousal misconduct could influence property division matters or trigger a penalty clause in a marital agreement. In such scenarios, gathering the necessary evidence could benefit the spouse hoping to leave because of marital misconduct.
No-fault divorces protect you from staying stuck
Although getting a divorce based on your spouse’s fault may seem like a way to get justice, fault-based divorce laws can leave people unable to exit unhealthy and unhappy marriages. Even when you know your spouse has done something wrong, you may not be able to produce any compelling evidence that will convince the courts.
No-fault divorces help ensure that those who need to leave their marriages can do so regardless of how much of a paper trail their spouse has left behind proving their bad behavior. Learning more about the basic divorce laws in Nevada can help you prepare a strategy for your upcoming family law matter.