What are “grounds” or legal reasons for divorce in Ohio?

Ohio law permits the granting of a divorce only upon a finding by the court that there are statutory grounds to terminate the marriage. There must be testimony by the plaintiff and a corroborating witness (or an admission by the other spouse) as to these specific grounds.

Ohio has both “no-fault” and “fault” grounds for divorce. The “no-fault” grounds include “incompatibility” and “living separate and apart without cohabitation for one year.”

There are nine “fault” grounds in Ohio. These “fault” grounds include:

• another spouse living at the time of marriage (bigamy);
• willful absence of a party from the marital home for one year;
• adultery;
• extreme cruelty (defined as “acts conduct calculated to destroy the peace of mind and happiness of one of the parties to the marriage”);
• fraudulent contract (i.e. a party was induced to enter the marriage as a result of a fraudulent representation that materially affects the essential elements of the marriage;
• gross neglect of duty (i.e. acts that constitute an omission to perform a legal duty, such as a failure to support the family);
• habitual drunkenness;
• imprisonment of the adverse party in a state or federal institution at the time of the filing of the complaint; and
• an out-of-state divorce.