At present, it is relatively easy for individuals to get a divorce if their marriage doesn't work out. Contentious divorces can often take a long time, and there are often custody disagreements and property division battles for years to come in highly disagreeable divorces. Still, receiving a divorce and getting the paperwork completed is not typically an impossible or excruciatingly long process. Yet in North Carolina, some legislators want to make it harder for couples to get the divorces that they believe are necessary.

According to the Charlotte Observer, the lawmakers in the state announced in April that they want to make it more difficult to get a divorce. They suggested a Healthy Marriage Act, which would extend the current one-year waiting period for a divorce to a two-year waiting period. The waiting period in this arrangement will not begin until the filer has given a formal notice of intent to divorce. During the two years that couples would need to wait to file, they would have to take long and detailed courses on improving their communication skills and learning conflict resolution techniques. If the classes are not completed successfully, the Healthy Marriage Act bill suggests that the couple would not be eligible for a divorce.

Couples who have children that would be affected by the divorce would need to take a four-hour course that discusses the affect that a split will have on the children. All of these courses would naturally aim to resolve the couple's conflicts and allow them to stay together, rather than go ahead with their split. The bill also mandates that separated couples would have the right to resume living together within their two-month waiting period.

Lawmakers surmise that if couples are living together it may help to spark a chemistry that they assumed was dead. Also, living together may facilitate more opportunities for compensation or may show couples how they can work together despite their differences. Either the husband or wife that decided to file the divorce in North Carolina must be a citizen for at least six months before fling. The proposal would also strike a current law that says that isolated incidents of sexual intercourse don't count against the one-year waiting period. This means that if a couple chose to have sexual intercourse they will need to restart their entire waiting period if they are still bent on receiving a divorce.

The North Carolina law makers who created the Healthy Marriage Act believe that all of these new rules in succession could discourage divorce and allow more North Carolina families to remain intact. Some politicians believe that if the Healthy Marriage Act passed in North Carolina, it would slash the divorce rate in half in only five years. North Carolina's current divorce rate is above the national average with 3.8 divorces per 1,000 residents. North Carolina lawmakers say that that they want to discourage families from ending their relationships with divorce is the marriage is not beyond saving.

Regardless of whether you live in North Carolina or another state, you need a divorce attorney on your side if you are going to start this legal procedure. Divorce can be difficult, especially if your case will be contested by your ex-spouse. You will want a professional who understands the implications of your case and can creatively arrive at solutions for your benefit. Talk to an attorney at the firm today if you want more information or if you need to secure a lawyer to help you through your case.