Some of you may have read my prior blog posts regarding establishing separation and how that can affect your rights to support, custody, equitable distribution, and ultimately, a Decree in Divorce.
As I mentioned in those posts, in Pennsylvania we have what we call a two-year waiting period. What this ends up meaning is if one spouse wants to have a divorce and the other does not, the parties must be living separate and apart for a period of at least two years before the court has the right to issue a Decree in Divorce. For example, here in Allegheny County you cannot even have a meeting with the judge and start talking about the distribution of your assets until that two-year mark has been reached. (Obviously, this is not true in cases where you want to work together to try to reach a resolution, mediate, collaborate, etc. You are free to discuss these issues at any time. This is one of the advantages of pursuing resolution of your matters outside of the court context).
For a very long time, there have been concerns that this two-year waiting period is not necessary, and that it needlessly prolongs the divorce process and otherwise makes things longer, more costly and more difficult for the parties. It should be noted that the separation period used to actually be three years and was moved down to two sometime ago. There has, intermittently over the last several years, been a push to try to reduce the two-year waiting period to a one-year waiting period. A one-year waiting period would be more consistent with many of our neighboring states, some of which require only six months between separation and when the court has the right to enter a Divorce Decree. House Bill 380 was introduced to reduce two-year waiting period down to one.
This legislation was proposed in the House and was approved by the House after which time it moved into the Senate. As of last week, the Bill was approved by the Senate’s judiciary committee, with only one of the fourteen votes being against it.
It is anticipated that the Senate is going to have a full vote on the fate of HB 380 in the near future. Under the terms of the Bill, it would be effective sixty days after its passing. So, the waiting period could be changing soon. The potential of changes to this waiting period may be something you wish to consider, when determining whether or not it is in your best interest to separate at this time.
I will keep you posted as to when this goes to a full vote and may be signed into law. For now, the two-year waiting period remains, but this may not be the case for much longer.
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