The legal basis a divorce is granted on - and in every state today at least one basis requires proving no wrongdoing by anyone.
Grounds are the legal basis on which a court ends a marriage. For most of American history they were fault-based: a spouse had to plead and prove something the other had done, such as adultery, desertion, cruelty or imprisonment, and a divorce could be refused if nothing was proved. Every state now offers at least one no-fault ground, usually expressed as irreconcilable differences or an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, and in most cases that is the ground used.
What no-fault changed is narrower than it is often taken to be. It removed the need to prove misconduct to end the marriage. It did not necessarily remove fault from everything else the court decides. A number of states still allow marital misconduct to be considered when dividing property or setting spousal support, some prohibit it, and the practical weight it carries varies widely even where it is permitted. Conduct that harms a child is a separate matter again and is relevant to custody in every state.
Some states retain fault grounds alongside no-fault, so a spouse may sometimes choose. That choice is a tactical one with real consequences: a fault ground must be proved with evidence, which lengthens and sharpens the case, and it may or may not improve the outcome depending on the state.
Two requirements sit alongside grounds and are frequently confused with them. Almost every state requires residency in the state, and often in the county, before its courts may hear the case at all. Many also impose a waiting period - a minimum time between filing, or between separating, and a final decree. Both are set by state statute, both differ substantially from state to state, and neither is stated here; they are the first two things worth confirming for the state in question, because they determine when and where a case can begin rather than how it ends.
The ground itself is rarely where a divorce is won or lost, and choosing a fault ground because it feels deserved is one of the more expensive decisions available in this area. Advice is worth taking before filing where the choice of ground might affect property or support in that particular state; where the spouses live in different states or one has recently moved, since residency decides which state may hear the case and filing in the wrong one wastes the filing; where a business, a pension, a professional practice or property acquired before the marriage is involved; and where there has been violence or threats, because protection is sought on its own track and does not wait for the divorce. Where the marriage was short, there are no children and nothing substantial is jointly owned, many states offer a simplified or uncontested route that a lawyer can point to in one conversation.
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