Divorce and Family Law
Professional & Thorough
Are you facing a divorce?
Generally, there are two ways to obtain a divorce in Mississippi:
Irreconcilable Differences. The first way to obtain a divorce is by agreement. If the husband and wife can agree to a divorce based on “Irreconcilable Differences” which is sometimes referred to as a “no-fault” divorce, the chancery court will grant the divorce. This simply means that the spouses no longer get along and are otherwise incompatible with each other to continue as husband and wife. Often times, if the parties can agree on a divorce, they can also agree on any remaining issues too. Such as, if children are involved, can the parties agree on the type of custody of the children, the amount of child support and visitation schedules? Can the parties agree on things like who keeps the house, or who should pay for health insurance, or who gets which vehicle and who pays for it, or even alimony?
Even if the parties cannot agree to those types of issues, they may still agree to a divorce based on based on Irreconcilable Differences and let the chancery court later decide the other issues for them. Remember, the chancery court cannot grant a divorce-irreconcilable differences until 60 days after the divorce is filed in chancery court.
Fault Grounds. The second way to obtain a divorce in Mississippi is by proving your grounds for divorce. What are grounds? There are twelve grounds for divorce in Mississippi. For those of you who are curious about all twelve grounds, click on this link to download: GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE . Otherwise, typical grounds often include adultery, habitual drunkenness or drug use, or habitual cruel and inhuman treatment which can include spousal domestic abuse and violence. These are the “nightmare” divorce cases we’ve all heard about. A relative, friend or even co-worker might tell you how ugly their divorce was, but remember that although all divorces share some common threads, each case really is different.
Finally, a few rules of thumb. If children are involved, the children always come first in the eyes of the court. If the parties can agree and settle any differences, the legal costs and attorney fees to both parties are usually affordable. Likewise the emotional toll on each party is usually less than a long, drawn out “nightmare” divorce case may cause all involved. However, for all of those who want to “fight it out” remember this, court battles and legal wars can be quite expensive. Unfortunately, sometimes there simply is no alternative. In closing, if you believe that yours will be divorce based on fault grounds, gather your evidence now, while you can, and before your spouse suspects you are contemplating a fault ground divorce.
Over many years, our team has gained the experience and expertise necessary to make this process as seamless as possible. We will establish your goals and align expectations. If you have any questions, simply reach out to us.