Organization Wants To Do Away With No-Fault Divorce

When a marriage just doesn't work out but no one is really to blame, often there's nothing left to do but shrug one's shoulders and contact a divorce attorney in Chicago (or wherever). The so-called "no-fault" divorce is defined by FindLaw as one in which neither party blames the other for the failed marriage.

FindLaw describes "fault" divorce, on the other hand, as one involving one or more of the following allegations by either party:

Cruelty
Adultery
Desertion
Imprisonment
Previously unknown inability to have sexual intercourse

Plenty of divorces end because the parties simply don't like each other anymore or have grown apart for whatever reason. But the Chicago Marriage Examiner interviewed the coordinator for an organization that hopes to end no-fault divorce, currently protected under federal law.

Assist Marriages End No-Fault Divorce, or AMEND, is circulating a petition to change federal law and end no-fault divorce nationally (PDF). Its stated purpose to end what it believes is a system that encourages moral decay and selfishness; while hurting children most of all.

After all, marriage is a legal contract. But since one of the top 10 reasons for ending no-fault divorce given by AMEND coordinator Connie White is that it "violates the 7th Commandment of God," it's worth noting that the organization is motivated by religious doctrine.

Ms. White says her organization does in fact support no-fault divorce if "a couple comes to a mutual agreement to end their marriage," but that AMEND is opposed to no-fault divorce when one party simply "walks away" from the contract.

But what real-life, unintended consequences would come out of a ban on no-fault divorce? Divorce attorneys in Chicago could probably shed more light on that important question.

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