Arkansas No Fault Divorce

The divorcing partner, who begins the process of filing in the court, is called as the Plaintiff. The other divorcing partner, who is served the divorce papers, is known as the Defendant. The venue for filing the divorce papers is the Chancery court in the state. The court allocates a Case number when the divorce papers are filed.

Residency requirements of Arkansas No Fault Divorce

The Arkansas Code Section 9-12-307 is regarding the residency requirements. Prior to filing for divorce, the Plaintiff or Defendant must be residing in this state for minimum 60 days. Also, prior to the final judgment granting the divorce decree, the Plaintiff or the Defendant must be living in this state for 3 entire months.

Grounds for Arkansas No Fault Divorce

• Due to the reason of “irreconcilable differences” or “incompatible temperaments”, the marriage of the divorcing partners gets irretrievably broken down. So, both the divorcing partners are mutually ready to obtain a divorce. The court decides that in such a case, it would not be in the best interest of the divorcing partners to try to mend the marriage.
• For 18 consecutive months, the divorcing partners must have resided separate and apart. During this period, there must not been any cohabitation. Such a separation must have been selected voluntarily.

In the above mentioned grounds for divorce, the character of the one partner is not maligned by the other and there is no blame-game.

Procedure

• If the Plaintiff is a resident of this state, then, the county wherein the Plaintiff resides is chosen to file the divorce papers
• If the Plaintiff is not a resident of this state, but the Defendant is, then, the county in which the Defendant lives is selected to file the divorce papers
• The above two points are mentioned in Arkansas Code 9-12-303
• The Arkansas Code Section 9-12-310 and 9-12-307 indicate that from the date of filing, there is a waiting period of 30 days
• At times the divorcing partners may have minor children who are living with one or both divorcing partners. In such a case, the court demands that one of the following two actions must be completed before or after entering a decree of divorce
  • A mediation must be carried out regarding visitation, custody and parenting issues
  • The divorcing parents must attend minimum 2 hours classes related to parenting issues of divorced parents

  These actions are according to Section 9-12-322 that is included in the Code of the state.

• As per Section 9-12-318, restoration of the name of the wife by the court is possible. The wife is given the name that she held before the marriage being dissolved

Distribution of Property

Consider that one divorced partner is residing with a new partner, while the other divorced partner is single. In such a case, the Judge grants more marital property to the singular partner and less marital property to the former partner. However, if both are single, then the marital property is equitably distributed.

Divorce Papers