Filing for Divorce in New Jersey

• Adultery — your spouse had an affair.
• Desertion, if your spouse has been gone for at least 12 months.
• Extreme cruelty, which means any physical or mental cruelty that threatens your safety or makes it unreasonable to expect you to live together. You must wait three months after the last incident before filing.
• Separation, if you and your spouse have lived apart for at least 18 months and there is no reasonable hope that you will reconcile.
• Addiction to drugs or habitual drunkenness for more than 12 months.
• Institutionalization for mental illness, if your spouse has been there for at least 24 months.
• Imprisonment for 18 months or more.
• Deviant sexual conduct.
• Irreconcilable differences, if your marriage could be considered broken for at least six months and there is no reasonable hope of reconciliation.  

• Property that you acquired before you were married.
• Property that you acquired by gift or inheritance.
• Income from your non-marital property.  

Your property will be divided in a way the court decides is most equitable, or fair. To determine that, the court takes into account:

• How long you were married.
• You and your spouse’s ages and physical and emotional health.
• Any income or property you brought to your marriage.
• The standard of living you established during your marriage.
• Any written agreement between you and your spouse regarding a division of your property.
• You and your spouse’s economic situations.
• You and your spouse’s incomes and earning capacities, including your educational backgrounds, training, employment skills, work experience, whether one of you left the job market and your custodial responsibilities for your children.
• How long it would take and how much it would cost to get any training or education necessary to allow each of you to support yourselves at a standard of living similar to While you were married.
• How you or your spouse might have contributed to the education, training or earning power of the other.
• You and your spouse’s contributions to the acquisition, loss, improvement or care of your marital property, including contributions as a homemaker
• The tax situation you each will face after your property is divided.
• The present value of your property.
• Whether the parent who has physical custody of your child should be awarded or allowed to live in your family home.
• You and your spouse’s debts.
• Whether a trust fund is needed for medical or educational costs for one of you or your child.
• Whether one of you put off achieving your career goals.
• Any other factors the court decides are relevant.