Grounds for Divorce in Tennessee

In Tennessee, a couple may get divorced by agreement without fault being found against either person where the parties agree and enter to what is called a marital dissolution agreement.  This is a contract between the couple that says that the parties have irreconcilable differences and fully divides the couples' debts, property, assets and custody. 

When there is not an agreement, then there must grounds for which the court can grant a divorce.  The grounds for divorce in Tennessee are as follows:

(1) Either party, at the time of the contract, was and still is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation;
(2) Either party has knowingly entered into a second marriage, in violation of a previous marriage, still subsisting;
(3) Either party has committed adultery;
(4) Willful or malicious desertion or absence of either party, without a reasonable cause, for one (1) whole year;
(5) Being convicted of any crime which, by the laws of the state, renders the party infamous;
(6) Being convicted of a crime which, by the laws of the state, is declared to be a felony, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary;
(7) Either party has attempted the life of the other, by poison or any other means showing malice;
(8) Refusal, on the part of a spouse, to remove with that person's spouse to this state, without a reasonable cause, and being willfully absent from the spouse residing in Tennessee for two (2) years;
(9) The woman was pregnant at the time of the marriage, by another person, without the knowledge of the husband;
(10) Habitual drunkenness or abuse of narcotic drugs of either party, when the spouse has contracted either such habit after marriage;
(11) The husband or wife is guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct towards the spouse as renders cohabitation unsafe and improper which may also be referred to in pleadings as inappropriate marital conduct;
(12) The husband or wife has offered such indignities to the spouse's person as to render the spouse's position intolerable, and thereby forced the spouse to withdraw;
(13) The husband or wife has abandoned the spouse or turned the spouse out of doors for no just cause, and has refused or neglected to provide for the spouse while having the ability to so provide;
(14) For a continuous period of two (2) or more years both parties have lived in separate residences, have not cohabitated as man and wife during such period, and there are no minor children of the parties.

If you are looking for experienced licensed Tennessee attorneys to help you through the legal maze of divorce, then let the Law Offices of Andrew E. Farmer be your guide.  Our attorneys practice in Sevier, Jefferson, Cocke, Blount & Knox Counties.