Answer: Desertion is one of Illinois' twelve grounds for divorce. A spouse is not "punished" by our legal system by mere virtue of the fact that he or she deserted the marital residence. If one deserts, the other party merely gains entitlement to a ground for divorce. I use the word "merely" because we live in an era where grounds for divorce have really become a name-tag to be used in our legal system for the purposes of obtaining a divorce. Today, the importance of which ground is used is generally and greatly overshadowed by the trauma of the breakup and each party's concerns for the family and of his and her financial futures.

In order to use Desertion as a ground for divorce, the deserting spouse must have willfully deserted or absented himself or herself from the other spouse for the space of one year, including any period during which litigation (for dissolution of marriage) may have pended between the spouses. The party claiming desertion must prove the absence of the other spouse for a minimum of a year and a day and must also prove, generally by testimony, that the desertion was not caused or provoked by the party left behind

Desertion may not be what you think it is.

Illinois case law protects the innocent spouse in a situation where he or she is forced out of the home because of the other spouse's behavior. The law will not allow the wrongdoer spouse, in this situation, to claim desertion against the innocent spouse.

All grounds and defenses thereto must be proven in Court and proof, in this regard, is generally obtained through the use of testimony of the parties.

Since more than one ground for divorce may fit a given case, the parties and their attorneys will most likely opt to use "irreconcilable differences" as a ground rather than desertion as the former implies no guilt or wrongdoing on the part of either party. The exercise of this option normally occurs after settlement has been reached.

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Richard and Kari are staunch advocates of the non-court approach to divorce, and are also active and seasoned litigators with over 60 years of combined trial experience in the Illinois divorce courts of Cook, DuPage, and Kane counties.