Divorce Grounds - What Are the Grounds for Divorce in the UK?

The most common ground for divorce is adultery and is one that you must be able to prove to the court. You must be able to prove beyond a reasonable shadow of doubt that your spouse has had sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex outside of your marriage and that you cannot continue to live with your spouse any more.

You do not have to name the other person involved and in many cases it can have some very serious consequences that you may not realize. However you must file within six months of when you first found out about the adultery.

Today domestic violence and divorce seem to go hand in hand as the number of cases of domestic violence is on the increase. These divorces fall under the auspices of the unreasonable behaviour divorce grounds. This particular set of grounds for divorce covers anything that one spouse may do that causes the other to feel like they can no longer live together as husband and wife.

These divorce grounds might include gambling, excessive drinking and financial irresponsibility or may go so far as to include just not having any common interests. Of all divorce grounds used in UK divorces this is the one more people use.

Other Grounds for Divorce

Desertion is grounds for divorce as long as your spouse has been gone for at least two years without your consent. However this ground is almost unheard of in divorce courts today. Separation is more likely to be used as divorce grounds because it is consensual and is actually required as a part of many divorces. A separation of two years can result in a divorce as long as both parties agree to it otherwise you must wait five years at which point the judge will grant you a divorce whether or not your spouse will consent to it.

In Scotland the divorce grounds are somewhat different if not more clear cut. You must have both resided in Scotland for at least one year and one or more of the following grounds must be met, adultery that has not been condoned or connived, whereas condoned means that you waited longer than 3 months before filing for you divorce and connived means that you were knowingly engaged in activities like wife swapping. Other grounds include unreasonable behaviour, separation for one year with consent of both parties to the divorce or two years without.

Before you consider filing for a divorce you need to make sure that in the eyes of the law you have grounds. A divorce is a very final settlement of your marriage and you need to be sure it is what you really want and that there is no way to repair the damage done before you take the necessary steps to end you marriage once and for all.