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Irreconcilable Differences Is Grounds for Divorce

The New Jersey Legislature recently passed and the Governor has signed into law an amendment to the divorce statute in New Jersey that allows couples to now get divorced if there have been irreconcilable differences for six months.

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ASSEMBLY, No. 483

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

212th LEGISLATURE

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2006 SESSION

Sponsored By:

Assemblyman CHRISTOPHER "KIP" BATEMAN

District 16 (Morris and Somerset)

Assemblyman NEIL M. COHEN

District 20 (Union)

Co-Sponsored By:

Assemblymen Biondi, Gusciora, Diegnan and Bramnick

Synopsis

Adds new causes of action for divorce based on irreconcilable differences.

Current Version of Text

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

AN ACT establishing a cause of divorce from the bond of matrimony and amending N.J.S.2A:34-2.

BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. N.J.S.2A:34-2 is amended to read as follows:

2A:34-2. Divorce from the bond of matrimony may be adjudged for the following causes heretofore or hereafter arising:

1. Adultery ;

2. Willful and continued desertion for the term of 12 or more months, which may be established by satisfactory proof that the parties have ceased to cohabit as man and wife;

3. Extreme cruelty, which is defined as including any physical or mental cruelty which endangers the safety or health of the plaintiff or makes it improper or unreasonable to expect the plaintiff to continue to cohabit with the defendant; provided that no complaint for divorce shall be filed until after 3 months from the date of the last act of cruelty complained of in the complaint, but this provision shall not be held to apply to any counterclaim;

4. Separation, provided that the husband and wife have lived separate and apart in different habitations for a period of at least 18 or more consecutive months and there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation; provided, further that after the 18-month period there shall be a presumption that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation;

5. Voluntarily induced addiction or habituation to any narcotic drug as defined in the New Jersey Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, P.L.1970, c.226 or habitual drunkenness for a period of 12 or more consecutive months subsequent to marriage and next preceding the filing of the complaint;

6. Institutionalization for mental illness for a period of 24 or more consecutive months subsequent to marriage and next preceding the filing of the complaint;

7. Imprisonment of the defendant for 18 or more consecutive months after marriage, provided that where the action is not commenced until after the defendant's release, the parties have not resumed cohabitation following such imprisonment;

8. Deviant sexual conduct voluntarily performed by the defendant without the consent of the plaintiff;

9. Irreconcilable differences which have caused the breakdown of the marriage for a period of six months and which make it appear that the marriage should be dissolved and that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.

(cf: P.L.1971, c.217, s.11)

2. This act shall take effect immediately.

This bill amends N.J.S.2A:34-2 concerning the causes for divorce. The bill provides that a divorce will be granted on grounds of "irreconcilable differences which have caused the breakdown of the marriage for a period of six months and which make it appear that the marriage should be dissolved and that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation."