Legally Preventing Divorce
The short answer is no, you can’t legally prevent your spouse from divorcing you if that’s what they really want. While there are things you can do to make it more difficult for your spouse to divorce you, they’d still be able to divorce you if they really wanted to. If a marriage is bad enough, people will take unfavorable terms, spend lots of money, and wait for as long as necessary in order to get out of the marriage. In America, all states allow couples to get a divorce based upon “irreconcilable differences.” This means that your spouse is able to get divorced for any reason or no reason at all. They don’t have to prove that there was abuse or cheating or any other misconduct. Because of this, there isn’t anything that either party could do to prevent a divorce from happening. If your spouse wants to divorce you, they are able to do that.
Can You File an Appeal?
Technically speaking, you could potentially appeal your divorce which would overturn the divorce, making it as if it didn’t happen. However, there are a lot of issues with this. In order to be granted an appeal, you need to prove that you have legal grounds for an appeal—a law was misapplied while the judge was making a decision, for example. Even if you are granted an appeal, they wouldn’t necessarily overturn your entire divorce (unless it was absolutely necessary, which, in most cases, it’s not). Instead, they’d likely just overturn the part of the decree that was affected by the legal error, say a misapplication of the law or abuse of discretion. Even if you did manage to appeal the entire divorce, your spouse would eventually prevail in getting the divorce. Generally speaking, you only get one chance to file an appeal. You cannot file an appeal based on one issue, fail, and then file an appeal based on an entirely different issue in order to drag out the divorce process indefinitely.
Covenant Marriages
If you’re really serious about not getting a divorce, you can get a covenant marriage, assuming you get married in a state that offers that. Currently, Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana are the only states that offer covenant marriages. While a covenant marriage does make it more difficult to get divorced, it doesn’t make it impossible to get divorced. In a covenant marriage, your spouse can still divorce you, but they’ll have to live separately from you for a year and attend marital counselling. There may be additional requirements per state. Just because covenant marriages may be more difficult to end, does not mean it’s a guarantee to prevent divorce.
Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements
Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements can contain terms and language that may make a divorce more unappealing. For example, if you married for money, and you signed a prenuptial agreement agreeing to only $5,000 per month in alimony, you may find that living on $5,000 per month in this economy is much worse than putting up with your spouse. Some prenuptial agreements require couples to undergo marital counselling for a certain amount of time before they divorce, or they may offer preferential treatment to one party if the other party initiates the divorce or causes the dissolution via infidelity, etc. It should be noted that you can’t make the terms too unappealing. Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are designed to protect both parties. If a prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement benefits one party too disproportionately, the agreement may be thrown out—especially if the disadvantaged party did not have an attorney representing their interests when they agreed to the prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement.
Just Don’t Do Nothing
A lot of people have the idea that “S/he can’t divorce me if I ignore everything divorce-related, including court-summons.” While you can drag out the process by dragging your feet, your spouse absolutely can get a divorce without your consent or participation in the proceedings. You do not need to show up to court for your spouse to divorce you. Granted, going with the flow will make the divorce process faster, but dragging your feet won’t completely prevent the divorce. Depending on what you choose to ignore, your spouse could end up with a default judgement in their favor. In the simplest terms, a default judgement would mean that your spouse got exactly what they asked for because you didn’t show up to court.
When You Need Legal Advice
If you’re struggling with the divorce process, it may be in your best interests to hire an attorney, especially if your spouse is dragging their feet in attempt to prevent the divorce from happening. If you’re ready to get quality legal representation, contact CoilLaw today to set up your initial consultation.
