Grounds for Divorce

Under Mississippi law, there are 3 methods for obtaining a divorce:

1. Irreconcilable Differences;

2. Irreconcilable Differences with Contested Issues;

3. Fault Grounds.

IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

Sometimes referred to as "no fault", this method is usually the least expensive and least stressful. To receive a divorce on this ground, the parties must each agree to the divorce and must reach a written agreement providing for the custody and maintenance of their children under 21, if any, and dividing their property and debts. After filing a Complaint for Divorce, there is a 60 day waiting period before the court may grant a divorce on the grounds of Irreconcilable Differences.

IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES WITH CONTESTED ISSUES

If the parties each agree to an Irreconcilable Differences divorce but are unable to agree about custody and maintenance of their minor children or how to divide their property and debts, they may consent to a divorce on the ground of Irreconcilable Differences and permit the court to decide the issues upon which they cannot agree. This method is normally the second least expensive and stressful to the litigants.

FAULT GROUNDS

If the parties are unable to obtain a divorce by one of the Irreconcilable Differences methods, then one party must sue the other for divorce on one of the recognized "fault grounds" mentioned below. Under this procedure, the accusing party must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defending party is guilty of the fault ground(s) alleged. This method is usually the most expensive and most stressful to the litigants and can be drawn out for an extended length of time. It is not uncommon, however, for a Complaint for Divorce to be filed on a fault ground and later compromised and settled on the ground of Irreconcilable Differences. The 12 fault grounds for divorce are:

1. Habitual cruel and inhuman treatment.
2. Adultery.
3. Being sentenced to any penitentiary, and not pardoned before being sent there.
4. Desertion for one year.
5. Habitual drunkenness.
6. Habitual and excessive use of opium, morphine or other like drug.
7. Natural impotency.
8. Insanity or idiocy at the time of marriage, if the party complaining did not know of such infirmity.
9. Marriage to some other person at the time of the pretended marriage between the parties.
10. Pregnancy of the wife by another person at the time of the marriage, if the husband did not know of such pregnancy.
11. The partys being related to each other within the degrees of kindred between whom marriage is prohibited by law.
12. Incurable insanity.