What are the grounds for divorce in Idaho?
Grounds are the legally acceptable reasons to get divorced. Idaho has no-fault and fault-based grounds for divorce.
You can get a no-fault divorce in Idaho if you and your spouse have “irreconcilable differences.” This means that you have serious, lasting differences that caused your marriage to break down. To get a divorce based on this ground, you don’t have to prove that the divorce is your spouse’s fault. Instead, you must show the judge that either:
- there are substantial reasons to end your marriage; or
- you and your spouse have lived apart in different homes for at least five years.1
Alternatively, you can get a divorce if you can prove that your spouse was responsible (at fault) for the breakdown of your marriage for any of the following reasons:
- Adultery - Your spouse had sexual intercourse with someone else after you were married.2
- Extreme cruelty – Your spouse caused you serious physical injury or serious mental suffering.3
- Willful desertion – Your spouse left you without planning to return and stayed away for at least one year.4
- Willful neglect – Your husband refused to support you financially, even though he could, for at least one year. (Note: The law specifically uses the word “husband,” not “spouse.”)5
- Habitual intemperance - For at least one year, your spouse regularly got so drunk that s/he couldn’t engage in normal activities or his/her drinking caused you great mental suffering.6
- Conviction of a felony - Your spouse got convicted of a felony while you were married.7
- Permanent insanity - Your spouse has been confined to a psychiatric hospital (“insane asylum”) for at least three years and the judge believes s/he will never be sane again.8
1 I.C. §§ 32-610; 32-616
2 I.C. § 32-604
3 I.C. § 32-605
4 I.C. §§ 32-606; 32-609
5 I.C. §§ 32-607; 32-609
6 I.C. §§ 32-608; 32-609
7 I.C. § 32-603
8 I.C. § 32-801