Burnetts Solicitors
What is unreasonable behaviour? Why is it a ground for divorce?
Unreasonable behaviour is by far the most commonly used grounds for divorce and for good reason – think of it like “Domestos” – it covers everything!
I advise my clients to pick between 3 and 6 examples and use the first, worst and last of them to show their spouse`s unreasonable behaviour. The space on the petition is small for a reason – don`t go crazy and list every little incidence of their snoring or leaving the toilet seat up (or putting it down for the men in the room!) The court is generally not interested in the rights and wrongs of why the marriage has fallen apart so don`t waste your time and ink on cramming every little marital bugbear into the box!
Anthony Gold Solicitors
Failing to wash up the dishes, a few too many drinks at the pub and arguing about directions may be part of many typical marital ups and downs. When it comes to divorce proceedings, these scenarios can qualify as a ground for divorce as ‘unreasonable behaviors’.
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Dammed if you do and Damned if you Don’t – Extract from the Wikivorce divorce forum.
I’m a divorce lawyer, and there’s no more pointless way of giving more money to a divorce lawyer than defending a divorce – ultimately if one half of any couple wants a divorce based on unreasonable behaviour then its going to happen.
But be realistic – I’ve always said to clients that the bar for unreasonable behaviour in the English Courts is sufficiently low that there is enough ‘unreasonable behaviour’ in any happy marriage to be sufficient for a divorce. This is mainly because ‘unreasonable’, like ‘beauty’, is in the eye of the beholder. A classic example are these two options for an unreasonable behaviour paragraph:
– He works too hard, leaving me feeling lonely at home.
– He doesn’t work hard enough, leaving me feeling that I am shouldering the burden of keeping the family going. etc etc. http://www.wikivorce.com/divorce/Divorce-Advice/General-Divorce/284897-Defending-Unreasonable-behaviour.html