Thursday, April 7, 2016

Defining the Term Divorce in the State of Washington.

Since 1973 the State of Washington has not used the word divorce to describe the legal process for ending a marriage.  The Washington State legislature adopted the Marriage Dissolution Act, which was designed to eliminate the concept of fault from marital proceedings.  The Act abolished the need to prove fault as the grounds for terminating a marriage and did away with the concept of alimony in favor of spousal maintenance.

Marriage dissolution is essentially the same thing as divorce except that “fault” also has no bearing on the division of property or the award of maintenance.  If a marriage is irretrievably broken, then there are grounds for the dissolution of marriage.  If, however, one of the parties desires to contest the dissolution, he or she can petition the court for conciliation, which is in effect forced marriage counseling through the Family Court.

Understanding divorce law in the Evergreen state can be a complicated matter.  You need the expertise of a veteran Seattle family attorney like Lyle M. Clark, Jr.  Attorney Clark will put his more than three decades of experience with the law to work for you to make sure that your side is represented aggressively.  Call Lyle Clark and make an appointment at his Bellevue office right away at (425) 452-3092.

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