Divorce

“Grounds” are legally acceptable reasons for divorce. In order for a judge to grant you a divorce in Hawai‘i, you must prove that at least one of the following things is true:

1. The marriage cannot be fixed, which the law refers to as “irretrievably broken”;
2. You and your spouse have lived separate and apart with a legal separation decree (“separation from bed and board”) for the time period the judge assigned. At the end of that time, you and your spouse haven’t gotten back together (reconciled);
3. The judge issued an alimony order (decree of separate maintenance) while you and your spouse were still married, and after at least two years, you and your spouse haven’t gotten back together (reconciled); or
4. You and your spouse have lived apart continuously for at least two years immediately before the divorce was filed, and the judge finds that:

• it’s unlikely you and your spouse will get back together (reconcile); and
• granting a divorce in your situation is appropriate.¹

¹ Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-41