Illinois’ 5 Legal Grounds For Divorce Are Kinda Weird

Divorce law is a complicated thing and in Illinois, it gets kinda weird.

Divorce is never a sunny thing to talk about. We all know the most common legal reason that either ourselves or people we know have gotten divorced: "irreconcilable differences" (or what the state of Illinois calls "irretrievable breakdown", which sounds much more dramatic).

That can cover a lot of different situations and transgressions, so a lot of times it's just left at that. But if you're getting a divorce in Illinois, there are more grounds than just that phrase that would allow for a legal divorce, per Illinois Legal Aid.

Here are the 5 reasons for a divorce in Illinois, and let me tell you...#1 is definitely one you didn't even think of.

5. You Were Drunk

Technical words:

A party lacked the capacity to consent to the marriage. This includes lack of mental capacity or incapacitation by drugs or alcohol

Actual words: you were blitzed to a notable degree.

4. You Screwed Something Up With The Marriage License

If anything in Illinois' marriage statute doesn't apply to you or your marriage license, it's grounds for divorce.

3. Someone Lied At The Beginning Of The Marriage

If the marriage was under false pretenses, it can be grounds for divorce. The law also uses the phrase "essentials of marriage", which I can't find a legal definition for anywhere, but here's what Illinois Legal Aid says:

Marriage was induced by fraud or duress regarding the "essentials of marriage"

That's a really really ambiguous phrase but ok.

2. Teens Got Married Without Parental Approval

If even one 16 or 17-year-old gets hitched and the parents didn't sign off on it, that's grounds for a divorce. That would be why your ID is required to get a marriage license. The legal words:

One of the parties was 16 or 17 when married and did not have the consent of their parents, guardian or judicial approval.

#1. You Didn't Know Your Partner Couldn't Get It On

Listen. This is not saying that you can divorce your partner for being bad at buttering the biscuit, or that you can divorce your partner for infertility struggles.

If you didn't know that your partner literally cannot perform the physical act of love when you said "I Do", that is grounds for a divorce in Illinois. The legal jargon:

A party lacked the physical capacity to consummate the marriage by sexual intercourse and the other party did not know of the incapacity at the time of the marriage ceremony

To file for "irretrievable breakdown" as the grounds for divorce in Illinois, spouses have to live apart from each other for 6 months and be able to prove that attempts at reconciliation have failed.