Grounds for Divorce

By statute, Utah courts requires proof of one or more of the following grounds for divorce:

• Impotency of the defendant at the time of the marriage;
• Adultery committed by the defendant subsequent to the marriage;
• Willful desertion of the plaintiff by the defendant for more than one year;
• Willful neglect of the defendant to provide for the plaintiff the common necessaries of life;
• Habitual drunkenness of the defendant;
• Conviction of the defendant for a felony;
• Cruel treatment of the plaintiff by the defendant to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress to the plaintiff;
• Irreconcilable differences of the marriage;
• Incurable insanity; or
• When the husband and wife have lived separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive years without cohabitation.

As a practical matter almost all divorces filed in the State of Utah are based on grounds of irreconcilable differences. Pleading irreconcilable differences does not require proof of fault, and therefore simplifies the divorce process.