Adultery, insanity, collusion, cruelty, abandonment: In California, most of these circumstances relate more to the plot of a soap opera than to a divorce.  While any one of these could have actually motivated the divorce, a California judgment of dissolution (divorce) will be based only on either irreconcilable differences or (less likely) incurable insanity.  That’s because since 1970, California was the first state to implement the no-fault divorce.  Since then, many other states have followed suit, while others allow both fault and no fault divorces.  With a no fault divorce, the court can terminate the marriage without proving fault.  Compare this to a fault based divorce, where the termination will be granted only if you give and prove grounds for divorce within those reasons allowed by state law, or defend against these claims if you’re responding to a spouse’s petition for the divorce.  In a fault based divorce, the conduct of the spouse who’s found to be “at fault” may even be considered when deciding issues such as property division.  As of now, New York is the last state in the nation that doesn’t have a no fault ground for divorce.    (more…)