USA – INDIANA Law and Practice Contributed by: Drew Soshnick, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP
1. Divorce 1.1 Grounds, Timeline, Service and
or waiver of formal service of process. See Indi - ana Trial Rules 4 (and subparts) and 5. Religious Marriages Religious marriages and divorces, if viewed as legitimate under Indiana law, are generally given full faith and credit. Void and Voidable Marriages Indiana has statutory provisions for void mar - riages – ie, marriages that were never valid because, for example, one of the spouses was married at the date of the new marriage, the marriage was to a close relative, or one of the spouses was incompetent (see Indiana Code Section 31-11-8-0.3 et seq). Indiana also has statutory provisions for voidable marriages – ie, a valid marriage that has grounds to be voided, such as incapacity to marry because of age or mental incompetence or fraud (see Indiana Code Section 31-11-9-1 et seq). A void marriage can be declared as having never occurred upon a proper showing. For a court to order a void mar - riage, a petition for voidable marriage must be filed and requisite statutory proof provided. 1.2 Choice of Jurisdiction One party must be a resident of a county (or stationed at a US military installation within the county) in the State of Indiana for three consecu - tive months and of the State of Indiana for six consecutive months for subject-matter juris - diction over a divorce (Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-). There also must be personal jurisdic - tion over the responding party (see Indiana Trial Rule 4.4(A)). Domicile is the place where a party resides or intends to return from a temporary absence to reside. Residence is where a party physically lives. Nationality (the place of origin of a person)
Process Grounds
The grounds for divorce in Indiana for both opposite and same-sex marriages are: irretriev - able breakdown of the marriage, conviction of a felony after marriage, impotence if it existed at the time of the marriage, and incurable insanity of a party for at least two years (Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-3). Indiana does not recognise common law marriages entered into after 1 Jan - uary 1958 (see Indiana Code Section 31-11-8-5). Process and Service The divorce process begins with the filing of a petition for dissolution of marriage (see Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-5) and, by statute, can - not end a marriage by approving a settlement agreement or conducting a final hearing less than 60 days after the filing of that petition or a petition for legal separation that was converted to a divorce petition (see Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-10). There is no pre-filing or other peri - od of required separation. A party may, but is not required to, respond to a petition for dissolution of marriage or for legal separation (Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-8) Courts can enter provisional orders governing matters during the pendency of a divorce case (Indiana Code Section 31-15- 4-1 et seq). If parties reach an agreement, courts may dissolve a marriage without conducting a final hearing (Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-13). Additionally, if parties resolve some, but not all, issues, they may submit the resolved issues for approval by summary disposition order (Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-14). Indiana Code Section 31-15-2-8 and the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure govern service and pro - vide for certified mail, personal process server,
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