Divorce has become a steady occurrence in the United States. With approximately 2.4 divorces per 1,000 people in recent years, hundreds of thousands of divorces are finalized annually.
There are legal rules that govern the process of legally ending a marriage in the US. These divorce laws deal with the reason for divorce and other processes that it entails. It handles division of property between the spouses, child custody, child and spousal support, and their legal procedure.
Divorce laws are primarily handled at the state level. As such, the rules can vary depending on where the divorce is filed. Some states follow community property rules for dividing marital assets, while others use equitable distribution standards based on fairness and financial circumstances.
If you are going to end your marriage, you will face major issues. And understanding how to deal with them is important so you can push forward to a new chapter of your life.
Grounds for Divorce: No-Fault and Fault-Based
All 50 states permit couples to divorce without establishing fault. A no-fault divorce does not require both partners to show that one partner made the marriage fail. The spouse who files for divorce states either irreconcilable differences, an irretrievable breakdown of marriage, or a period of separation, which some states allow as a valid reason for divorce.
The plaintiff does not need to prove fault to get a divorce. There are also cases, however, where proving fault is used to leverage or influence its outcomes.
Most states maintain both no-fault divorce options and fault-based divorce options. The legal system recognizes multiple fault-based reasons for divorce, which include adultery and cruel treatment and total abandonment and imprisonment and addiction to drugs.
For example, under Arizona divorce laws, which also follow community property laws, they generally require marital assets and debts acquired during the marriage to be divided equally between spouses.
Some states continue to use fault grounds because marital misconduct can influence financial results between divorcing couples. A spouse who committed adultery will receive reduced alimony or, in some cases, will not receive any alimony when a court uses fault to determine alimony rights even when the couple uses a no-fault divorce to end their marriage.
The American Bar Association conducts a survey that examines divorce and alimony laws to show which states maintain fault-based grounds and how they assess misconduct for financial judgments.
Maryland became a complete no-fault divorce state after it removed all fault-based divorce grounds in October 2023. The courts in that jurisdiction assess marital misconduct for alimony and property decisions, but no grounds exist as a basis for divorce.
Several other states have active legislative discussions about modifying or narrowing no-fault access, though as of mid-2025 no state has repealed it.
Property Division: Community Property vs. Equitable Distribution
Nine states operate their legal systems as community property jurisdictions through their recognition of Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin as community property states.
The law in these states treats property obtained by both spouses during their marriage as shared property, which they will divide equally at their divorce proceedings regardless of whose income produced the property or whose name appears on the ownership documents.
The states that remain practice equitable distribution because this method enables courts to distribute marital assets according to fair standards that do not require equal sharing. Equitable distribution courts assess multiple elements, including the duration of the marriage, each spouse’s financial standing, their total contributions to the marriage, both parties’ current health conditions, and, in certain states, marital misconduct.
Both legal systems need an initial decision to classify which assets belong to the marriage and which assets belong to each individual. When someone mixes their separate property with shared marital resources or uses marital earnings to enhance their privately owned assets or adds their spouse’s name to their once-independent property, it becomes shared marital property that courts will divide.
Divorce lawyer Kala Arevalo says that all marital assets must be divided between the couple in a divorce, including retirement funds, pensions, bank accounts, vehicles, or any owned real estate that was acquired during the marriage.
Child Custody: The Best Interests Standard
All states evaluate custody matters through the best interests of the child standard. The standard does not automatically favor either parent.
Courts consider the child’s relationship with each parent, home stability, work schedules, the child’s preferences when appropriate, each parent’s involvement in education and healthcare, and any history of domestic violence or substance abuse.
Physical custody determines the child’s permanent residence. Legal custody establishes who controls decisions regarding the child’s educational and medical and religious upbringing matters. Joint physical custody and joint legal custody are both common outcomes where the parents live in the same geographic area and can cooperate.
Courts generally prefer arrangements that maintain the child’s bond with both parents, except in situations where safety issues create dangerous contact with one parent.
Parents who reach their parenting agreement can avoid having a judge impose one. The negotiated parenting plan becomes part of the divorce decree, which operates as a court order that can be enforced.
Alimony and Spousal Support
No state grants automatic alimony to spouses who request it. A spouse who wants support needs to show financial need, while the other spouse must demonstrate his ability to provide support.
The courts assess multiple factors, including marriage duration, marital standard of living, each spouse’s financial resources, and the duration needed for the lower-earning spouse to achieve financial independence, and they consider any professional obligations that the couple made during their marriage.
Florida abolished permanent alimony through new legislation that started on July 1, 2023, and established new alimony rules that limit payments to 50 percent of the duration of short-term marriages, 60 percent of moderate-term marriages, and 75 percent of long-term marriages.
The maximum alimony amount is capped at 35 percent of the difference between the spouses’ net incomes. The new regulations mark Florida’s most extensive alimony changes, which have sparked comparable debates across different states.
Residency Requirements and Filing
The state’s courts will only grant divorce permission after one spouse meets the state’s residency requirement. Most states require six months of residency. Only six weeks of residence is needed by Nevada and other states.
South Carolina requires one year. The requirement only needs to be met by one spouse, but that spouse must maintain residency until the court papers are submitted.
Divorce cases are filed in the family or circuit court of the county where the filing spouse resides. The other spouse receives the petition, which requires them to reply within a designated period.
States without mandatory waiting periods allow uncontested divorce cases with no children and a written settlement agreement to reach final decree within weeks, while states with cooling-off requirements need many months.
The duration for contested divorces, which involve disputed property or custody, usually extends between one and two years or beyond that period.
