No Fault Divorce States

The base of a no fault divorce is that both the husband and the wife do not indict one another for the breakdown of their marriage. In order to procure a divorce, none of these have to prove fault or guilt or accuse each other. Generally, they have to site incompatibility, irretrievable breakdown or irreconcilable differences as the reasons for the divorce. Some states that implement no fault divorce demand a period of apart and separate living with an intention that the separation should be permanent.

Transformation to No Fault Divorce States

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks introduced the topic of no fault divorce. However, in the United States, this concept became ripe only in 1953, when Oklahoma became the first state to accept this sort of divorce. For the next 17 years, nothing worthwhile took place in the United States regarding this divorce type.

On 4th September 1969, the Governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed the Family Law Act according to which California registered its name as the 2nd state in the country to allow no fault divorce. From the above mentioned date till 1977, 9 states in the country supported no fault divorce. Till the end of 1983, each state with the exception of South Dakota and New York incorporated no fault divorce laws.

In 1985, South Dakota also joined the remaining states. Presently, New York is the single state that has not integrated a no fault divorce statute in its system.

Roster of No Fault Divorce States

States wherein No Fault divorce was added to Traditional divorce (i.e. Fault and No Fault divorces exist)	States wherein No Fault is the Sole ground for divorce	Duration of living apart and separate (states not included do not have any such duration)
Alabama Arizona Arkansas Connecticut Delaware Georgia Idaho Illinois Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Mississippi Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wyoming	Alaska Arizona California Colorado District of Columbia Florida Hawaii Iowa Kentucky Michigan Minnesota Montana Nebraska Oregon Washington Wisconsin	Alabama - 2 years Alaska - 2 years Arkansas - 18 months Connecticut - 18 months Delaware - 6 months District of Columbia - 1 year Hawaii - 2 years Illinois - 2 years Kentucky - 60 days Louisiana - 6 months Maryland - 2 years Missouri - 1-2 years Montana - 180 days Nevada - 1 year New Hampshire - 2 years New Jersey - 18 months New York - 1 year North Carolina - 1 year Ohio - 1 year Pennsylvania - 2 years Rhode Island - 3 years South Carolina - 1 year Tennessee - 2 years Texas - 3 years Utah - 3 years Vermont - 6 months Virginia - 1 year West Virginia - 1 year

The above table indicates the position in the year 2000. Since then it is possible that some alterations could have taken place.

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