Divorce

Tennessee Grounds For Divorce

The Tennessee legislature has passed and the Governor has signed the long sought parenting plan legislation.  The new law will allow more flexibility in visitation which should now be refereed to as "parenting time".  The Law became effective January 1, 2001 and has dramatically changed how divorces are obtained in Tennessee when children are involved.

Click here for the steps required to get a divorce if you have children.

For parenting plan information, click here.

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If you don't have children, read on.

The following are grounds for divorce under Tenn. Code Ann. 36-4-101:

(1) Either party, at the time of the contract, was and still is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation;

(2) Either party has knowingly entered into a second marriage, in violation of a previous marriage, still subsisting;

(3) Either party has committed adultery;

(4) Willful or malicious desertion or absence of either party, without a reasonable cause, for one (1) whole year;

(5) Being convicted of any crime which, by the laws of the state, renders the party infamous;

(6) Being convicted of a crime which, by the laws of the state, is declared to be a felony, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary;

(7) Either party has attempted the life of the other, by poison or any other means showing malice;

(8) Refusal, on the part of a spouse, to remove with his or her spouse to this state, without a reasonable cause, and willfully absenting himself or herself from the spouse residing in Tennessee for two (2) years;

(9) The woman was pregnant at the time of the marriage, by another person, without the knowledge of the husband;

(10) Habitual drunkenness or abuse of narcotic drugs of either party, when the spouse has contracted either such habit after marriage;

(11) The husband or wife is guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct towards the spouse as renders cohabitation unsafe and improper which may also be referred to in pleadings as inappropriate marital conduct;

(12) The husband has offered such indignities to the wife's person as to render her condition intolerable, and thereby forced her to withdraw; and

(13) He has abandoned her, or turned her out of doors, and refused or neglected to provide for her.

(14) Irreconcilable differences between the parties; and

(15) For a continuous period of two (2) or more years which commenced prior to or after April 18, 1985, both parties have lived in separate residences, have not cohabitated as man and wife during such period, and there are no minor children of the parties.

Click here to read a Sample Divorce Agreement.