On September 26, the Pennsylvania Senate returned to session and adopted amendments to the Pennsylvania Divorce Code that reduced the period by which a party can secure a no-fault divorce on the basis of irretrievable breakdown from two years to one. The bill is awaiting signature by Governor Wolf.
When first enacted in 1980 the Divorce Code required a three-year separation before a divorce could be obtained on no-fault grounds without consent. In 1988 the law was amended to reduce the waiting period to two years. Legislation to further reduce the wait was introduced in February, 2015 and secured approval from the House of Representatives in June of 2016.
The new law does not affect pending divorces and does not become effective until 60 days after Governor Wolf signs the bill. But it is a major change and will bring improvement to the lives of many for whom divorce is a financially and emotionally draining life event. Ironically, while many argue that this will only promote divorce, the greatest number of divorces to be processed in any one year, came in 1979, the year before no fault came into play. Today the number of divorces is much lower than in the 1980s and 1990s but the real cause for that statistic may be the reluctance of millennials to embrace marriage as the sine qua non of a meaningful relationship.
There is also an amendment to Section 3323(C.1) of the Divorce Code related to bifurcation. It mandates that Courts evaluate the impact of a proposed bifurcation on any minor children of the marriage as it relates to the economics of the case.