Basics Of Divorce In Alabama
Alabama uses fault and no-fault grounds for divorce. Alabama no-fault based grounds are:
- Incompatibility
- Irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and voluntary abandonment from bed and board for one year. This means the parties are no longer living in the same house; or if still residing in the same home, no longer sharing a bed.
- Incapacitated from entering into the marriage state
- Adultery
- Imprisonment
- Habitual drunkenness or drug use
- Insanity for five successive years
- In favor of the husband, when the wife was pregnant at the time of marriage, without his knowledge or agency
- Domestic abuse
Alabama like every state in the union requires that both parents provide financial support to the child. The court attempts to maintain the standard of living the child enjoyed during the marriage. The amount of support is determined by a formula that calculates the earning potential of each spouse and the amount of time each spouse spends with the child.
Alabama is an equitable division state in determining the division of the marital estate. At the time an action is filed the parties to the divorced are enjoined from disposing of any property without court consent until property division is decided.
All property obtained during the marriage regardless of how it is titled is considered part of the marital estate. The judge divides the property in a way that is considered fair but not necessarily equal.
