Legal Alternatives To Divorce

Many people who consider that their marriage is not working anymore decide to get divorced. They either wait too long to take this step or they rush into it without analysing the alternatives. It is true that there are irreconcilable situations when people should indeed get divorced and stop tormenting their lives, but there are also cases in which divorcing is not the best solution.

The divorce is seen as a radical change in a couples life especially if there are children involved too. Moreover, the legal fees are very expensive and some people simply cannot afford them. This is why more and more people choose the alternatives to divorce before they take such a radical decision.

The annulment of the marriage is one of the legal alternatives to divorce. Obtaining a civil annulment of the marriage usually takes much less time than the divorce, but there are exceptions especially when the annulment is declared at the end of a divorce process. The civil annulment can take place only under special circumstances that usually involve one of the partners withholding essential information such as the age, sexual orientation, criminal record, previous marriages and divorce or in some cases diseases that affect the marriage in an irreversible manner.

Another alternative to divorce is the legal separation. This is a good choice when people do not want to get divorced yet, but want to make things the legal way. Some choose to separate, that is to live separately without making it legal. This is not considered a legal separation. To obtain this type of separation people just have to file in a petition to the court in which they ask the court to consider their separation legal. This petition establishes things like custody, separation of things and allows the spouses to benefit from legal protection in case one of the partner breaks the agreement.

The controlled separation is a legal contract in which the terms of the separation are clearly stipulated. Couples that choose this alternative to divorce are usually undecided whether they want to get a divorce and are willing to work things out through marital counselling and other types of sessions. Along the years it has been proven that counselling sessions have been very useful for couples who still have feelings and do not want to go to separate roads yet. The results can be amazing especially since everything is stipulated in a written agreement. Moreover, there are associations for family law that can offer guidance and which understand that divorce should be indeed the last step to take.