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Chicago, IL 60603

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Grounds for a Divorce

David Siegel: Yeah. Well, unfortunately, Jesse, we have to talk about divorce and family law because it is so prevalent, unfortunately, in our society, and I wanted to talk to you briefly, to start, about the grounds for a Chicago divorce. People get hung up on the grounds – adultery, mental cruelty, irreconcilable differences – and they really don’t understand how to prove those grounds or when those grounds should be appropriately used. Can you talk about grounds, from the most common to the most uncommon?

Jesse Barrientes: Sure. Illinois is a no-fault state, which means that –

David Siegel: But it was his fault.

Jesse Barrientes: Well, it’s always somebody’s fault.

David Siegel: What does that mean, no-fault? Let’s talk about that. That’s important.

Jesse Barrientes: We’re going to get to that. But Illinois is a no-fault state and it has a no-fault ground which is irreconcilable differences. It’s really a ground but it’s a no-fault ground, and with irreconcilable differences you’re saying that “we just can’t get along. We’ve tried to get back together, we’ve tried to reconcile, but it’s fruitless and futile.” It’s not going to work and it’s not in the best interest of the parties or the family that the parties get back together. With irreconcilable differences you have to have been living separate and apart for a continuous period in excess of two years. However, the two-year period can be waived by affidavit and stipulation, but six months of those two years cannot.

When they talk about living separate and apart, it doesn’t necessarily mean not living in the same house, because a lot of times people will still live in the same house because they can’t afford to go anyplace else, and they can’t afford to have another whole residence and all that. And so what happens is one person maybe will go to the guest bedroom or go to the couch, or they may even sleep in the same bed together but they’re more like roommates. They are no longer intimate and they are no longer really living together as a husband and a wife, and it’s been construed to mean sometimes that they haven’t been together that way.

David Siegel: So if you’re not functioning properly as husband and wife, and you’ve been living like this for at least six months, and you both agree to reduce the two-year waiting period down to the six months for irreconcilable differences, you can utilize those grounds?

Jesse Barrientes: That’s correct, unless you’ve been separate and apart for in excess of two years.

David Siegel: And we see that in a lot of cases, and especially desertion cases.

Jesse Barrientes: Right. And that’s another one, desertion, another ground that’s really, I don’t think too often used, and basically what that is is that the other spouse has left for a period of a year and you don’t know their whereabouts. They haven’t said anything, they just went for a pack of cigarettes or a gallon of milk and they’re gone.

David Siegel: And importantly, you did nothing to provoke or cause them to leave.

Jesse Barrientes: Right.

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