Does Legal Separation Always End in Divorce?

Legal Separation is a legal procedure that allows married couples to spend time apart for a variety of reasons as two separate or single people while retaining the legal status of their marriage.

We will first look at some of the advantages of separating over divorce or even annulment. Legal separation is to get a district court order (in the USA) stating the responsibilities both partners have towards each other and the rights they are entitled to enjoy as they live apart. This order is initiated though a petition to the court and the notice is served on the other partner. The court that issues the order has in its power, to solve all the normal problems that are settled in divorce court. So in effect, a situation is created where the two can remain as if divorced, while maintaining their marriage in the legal books.

The first advantage is that since they are still married, one spouse will be covered by the insurance of the other. They will also enjoy social security and pension and such benefits available that are the privilege of married couples. Secondly, though marriage seemed to have lost the sanctity that it had say 50 years ago and divorce rates are much, much higher, followers of certain sects of faith still avoid divorce. However, rather than stay in the confines of what would probably be a difficult situation they can use a legal separation.

In the event of some irrevocable rift in the relationship, couples sometimes seek to divorce quickly. However, the laws of certain states in the USA and the laws of some countries require that the couple be separated from each other for sometime, before they go about unraveling their marriage legally. For couples that are in a hurry to extract themselves from each other, legal separation allows a much quicker alternative. Also couples can use it as a trial, or as an opportunity to spend sometime away from each other and take look at their lives. During this period of trial, the court allows the separation of property and even childcare is allocated to each parents. The drawback some parties find with the legal separation is that, many judges will award the final settlements in divorce cases, based on what was agreed at the time of parting. This probably will be a good point form the wealthier partners view as he or she can get an idea of how much the divorce will cost. However, should you find someone else you wish to enter into marriage with, you would have to pay visit to the divorce courts, as you are still legal married.

On the positive side, legal separation has resulted in people actually saving their marriages, as the time apart had allowed them to look objectively at the situation, work out how to improve their relationship and probably in some cases when one partner thought staying married might be less costly, though it may be cynical to say so.

It could be said that legal separation do not always end in divorce, however not all partners that do not end up divorced are reconciled either.

Christine Crotts enjoys listening to her music or the local talk shows while working in the kitchen. Christine has written a site containing reviews on table radios, as well as the Bose radios.

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