Divorce

The judge can grant you a divorce if you and your spouse live separate and apart for six months, and it is not reasonably probable that you will resume your marital relationship.¹

The judge can also grant you a divorce based on certain grounds. Grounds are legally acceptable reasons for divorce. A judge can grant you a divorce if your spouse:

• cheats on you (adultery);
• is sentenced to confinement and hard labor in a Vermont state prison for life or for three or more years and is confined at the time you file for divorce;
• is sentenced to confinement and hard labor in another state, federal court, territory, or in a foreign country for life or for three or more years and is confined at the time you file for divorce;
• treats you with intolerable severity (cruelty);
• willfully deserts you and has been absent from your life (without being heard from) for seven years;
• neglects you and refuses to provide support to you even though s/he has the financial and physical ability to support you; or
• is permanently incapacitated because of a mental condition or psychiatric disability.²

¹ VT ST 15 § 551(7)
² VT ST 15 § 551