The Pros And Cons Of Fault Based Divorce Law

Before the 1970s, Nebraska had a fault based divorce system, which was the status quo of all states during the 1960s in the United States. The established fault based divorce law caused the legal court to be required to find fault in one party. However, the grounds to find fault in one party that could be legally considered for one to obtain a divorce were narrow. The grounds that could be possibly be used were desertion, cruelty, adultery, non-support, or ‘other’. Although, the grounds of ‘other’ were usually just one of the grounds stated above disguised under this term ‘other’ when going through the process of divorce. Even with these grounds, divorce cases could only be filed by the innocent party of the marriage. Thus, forcing the guilty party to stay in the marriage even if they had wanted to legally leave it. In addition, the innocent party would be the one to financial gain the most from ending the marriage. The fault system also could never truly have been painless with the constant emotional conflict being present before the couple even entered the courtroom. Also, it was impossible because of the requirement to find fault in someone they intimately know to dissolute …show more content…
Thus, causing the perceived positives that were hoped for to not be truly met. Although, one aspect the legal system had correctly fixed was realizing that “both parties, in some way, have contributed to the demise of their relationship.” This was an improvement from when fault divorce was in place and stated that “one party was all ‘right’ and the other all ‘wrong’” or even denying a divorce if they found that both parties were a fault for the end of the marriage. However, the legal system still had a great deal of work to do for divorce laws so that men and women were equal in the eyes of the