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The grounds for absolute divorce in Maryland are set out in Maryland Family Law Code Annotated Section 7-103. Two of the grounds are insanity and conviction of a crime under certain circumstances, and they are seldomly used. Until 2011, the four commonly used grounds were adultery, desertion for more than 12 months, voluntary separation for more than twelve months, and two-year separation.
In 2011, the legislature amended Section 7-103 of the Family Law Article to repeal the ground of voluntary separation, and to change the ground of two-year separation to one-year separation. This law took effect on October 1, 2011. By reducing the ground of two-year separation to one year, this amendment rendered the ground of voluntary separation obsolete in absolute divorces.
Historically, adultery was the only ground for which no separation or waiting period was required. Now, however Section 7-103 contains two additional grounds for absolute divorce which do not require a period of separation : "cruelty of treatment" toward the complainant spouse if there is no reasonable expectation of reconciliation, and "excessively vicious conduct" toward the complaining spouse if there is no reasonable expectation of reconciliation.
A third (new) ground for divorce, "mutual consent", was enacted in 2015 and took effect on October 1, 2015. Mutual consent can be a ground for divorce, without the necessity of separation, upon the following limited conditions : the parties do not have any minor children in common, they have an executed written settlement agreement resolving all issues related to alimony and property distribution, neither party files a pleading to set aside the agreement prior to the divorce hearing, and both parties appear before the court at the divorce hearing.
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