Ah, here is a thorny question: that of divorce and adultery!
Adultery is illegal in some states
To start, you should know that sexual relations between people at least one of whom is married (with someone else) is a crime in nineteen American states. Today, contravention of these laws generally results in few prosecutions, but care must still be taken. If you get caught in Michigan, it’ll cost you $10 in fines. But if it’s in Maryland that you’re arrested, it can still go up to four years in prison. In six states there may also be claims for financial reparations (Hawaii, North Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah). In a 2010 case, a North Carolina woman, for example, obtained a judgment of 9 million dollars in compensation from her husband’s mistress for “alienation of affection” (1).
Have a “date” when you divorce
There is no equivalent to the words “date” and “dating” in the French language, so we will say “lover partner” and “love meetings”.
As seen above, adultery is considered a crime in some places. And in any case it is not in itself very well seen in the United States. Certainly it depends a little on the places, but in any case it is not as well tolerated as in France, for example. While there may in itself be legal consequences for adultery, of course there may also be legal consequences when that adultery takes place in the context of a divorce.
A new relationship can have both emotional and directly legal consequences.
Protect children
On the emotional level, both the spouse from whom one wishes to divorce and the children or the entourage can be affected by this (or these) new relationship(s). And if it is regarding children, this emotional aspect can then have consequences on the right of custody etc… A judge can immediately prohibit during the period of the divorce that children can meet your partner(s).
Most specialized judges are not necessarily interested in “good morals”… except when it involves children.
Other aspects to consider
Here are other aspects on a more strictly legal level between adultery and divorce. The first element will already be to determine whether or not the state in which you live allows you to request a “divorce for fault” (adultery, abandonment, cruelty). This “at-fault divorce” can be requested in all states except: Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Hawaii, Florida, Colorado and California.
To find out if you can start dating, it is important to know if you have actually been separated, for how long… and how separated you are. If you are physically separated but financially you are still dependent on your spouse… that can also have consequences. Going out at night and on weekends, for example, often involves spending money, and it is better to go out on your own property than that of the family. A suspicion of “squandering” can indeed lead to investigations into bank accounts, and perhaps as a result find new “evidence” once morest the opposing party. In any case, the sums spent on procedures and lawyers are multiplied.
Another aspect: if your “new” romantic relationship is in fact not so “new” as that, it can put the opposite party (of the divorce) on the trail of a very real adultery that you had concealed before asking for the divorce.
– 1 – www.edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/12/08/cheating.spouses.lawsuits/
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