In this video, family law attorney Sina Mohajer discusses the different, valid reasons that you can give to get a divorce. What is the meaning of irretrievable or irremediable breakdown of the marriage, as well as can you even get a divorce without indicating a valid legal reason?

If you have any questions or would like to speak with a skilled attorney about family law—including legal reasons to get a divorce—contact Mohajer Law Firm today at (626) 569-5200.

Transcript:
When filing for divorce, I’m always posed with the question of what legal reasoning do I need to give in order to get that divorce? Now, in this video I’m going to discuss what are the different valid reasons that you can give to get a divorce. What is the meaning of irretrievable or irremediable breakdown of the marriage, as well as, can you even get a divorce without indicating a valid legal reason?

Hi, I’m Sina Mahajar. I’m a family law attorney practicing in the Greater Los Angeles County since 2012. I’ve been a contributing member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and I’ve been raided by Super Lawyer since 2019.

Three Legal Reasons to File for Divorce

In determining the legal reasons to file for divorce, it really comes down to three legal reasons. The first one is irreconcilable differences, which we’ll discuss in a second. The last two is nullity of a void marriage versus nullity of a voidable marriage.

Void Marriage vs Voidable Marriage

Now, a void marriage means that the marriage should have never taken place and there’s two criteria that fall under a void marriage. First one being incest, the other one is bigamy. In that situation, there’s no community assets divide because there was never a marriage.

But if you’re asking for a nullity of a voidable marriage, now you have to show the court a little bit more. And an example of a voidable marriage would be, for example, if you enter into the marriage under false pretenses or you are fraudulently induced into getting married.

Some examples are, for example, if you got married for purposes of immigration status. Or, I had a case recently where the parties agreed to get married under the notion that they were going to have children. However, after many years into the marriage, it turns out that one of the spouse never wanted to have children to begin with. So that constituted as a voidable marriage.

Irreconcilable Differences

Now, the third one that we talked about earlier, or I should say the first, one irreconcilable differences. This is the umbrella of all. This is also synonymous for irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, or as they also say, irremediable breakdown of the marriage.

Now, when I say an umbrella, any reason that you can think of would fall under irreconcilable differences. California is a no-fault divorce, so even infidelity, whether you just simply don’t like your partner anymore and you want to start a new life.

If you fell in love with somebody else, and you never cheated on your spouse, it doesn’t matter. Irreconcilable differences just means that ‘I’m done’. Because in the state of California, a marriage is like a contract. You’re entering into this agreement with your partner to be married and to live your life in a married way.

However, if you want to get out of that contract, you got to give a legal reason to do so. And irreconcilable difference is the safe haven. Everybody, almost everybody, picks irreconcilable differences, because in that, it’s easy to prove and you’ll get your divorce granted easily.

Do You Have to Give a Reason to Get Divorced?

Now, do you have to give a legal reason in order to get divorced? The answer is very simple. Yes.

You cannot ask for a divorce without giving a legal reason, so it has to be one of the three. Now, of course, the most common reason was irreconcilable differences. As I stated earlier, it’s the umbrella, the catch-all. So, regardless of why you don’t want to be in that marriage anymore, the court really wouldn’t care, as long long as they determine from you that it’s based on irreconcilable differences, that no mediation or counseling will help make amends of that relationship, and you want out. And as long as you answer ‘yes’ to all those questions, you’ll get your divorce.

Help Filing for a Divorce in California

If you have questions about your case or you would like to speak in more detail about the different legal reasonings, or different nuances of your divorce process, feel free to reach out. We offer a free initial consultation and I’ll be happy to sit with you one-on-one.