Divorce
Divorce is a legislatively created, judicially administered process that legally terminates a marriage no longer considered viable by one or both of the spouses. Divorce is also known as dissolution of marriage. Traditionally, divorce was fault-based. There was an “innocent or injured” party and a party who created physical or emotional “injury” to the “innocent” party. The injury or fault would need to be declared or proven in order to obtain relief in the form of a divorce. This system was adversarial in nature. Even if both parties wanted a divorce, one party had to allege wrongdoing by the other. In the 1970s, this system was reformed in California and a “no-fault” system was put in place. A majority of states now have a no-fault system.