Q: In Puerto Rico, a person can divorce on grounds of abandonment or separation. Whats the difference?

A: Good evening and thank you for using JUSTIA. In order to have a marriage there are three marital vows that must exist as per law, these are mutual support, mutual care and living under the same roof as a married couple. Any breach of these vows creates the a stage for filing a divorce. There are various causes for divorce in Puerto Rico from the simply unreconcilable differences, mutual consent, mental issues, addiction to controlled substances or alchoholic beverages, cruel treatment and abuse, abandonment, seperation, prostitution of spouse or children, absolute impotency, corruption of children and infidelity.

The definition of abandonment as a cause for divorce is the breaching of the marital vows for more than one year. It is total disconection of the married couple whereby one of the spouses acts and conducts thier life as if there was no marriage. The guilty party simply leaves the structured marital homestead telling the spouse that they have no intention to return and does not return for over one year giving no support, mutual help nor communication with the spouse. It is basically a disapearing act on the part of the guilty party. Any comunication between the spouses interrupts the time bar (term) and thus begings a new term of one year.

The definition of seperation as a cause for divorce is the breach of marital vows by one of the spouses for a term of more than two years but with sporadic comunication between the spouses, can exist even if both spouses live under the same roof or economical support is received from one spouse to the other. The cause exists simply because there is no marriage. Also sporadic sex will not affect the time span. The important factor to this cause is the voluntary act of the spouses to not continue to keep the marital vows.

The easiest cause to file for a divorce is unreconcilable differences since there is no need to explain why one wants to divorce and there is no defense. It just needs to be filed because one spouse does not want to continue the marriage for what ever reason. Atleast one spouse must be a resident of Puerto Rico having lived here for a minimum of one year prior to filing in the court.

A: Yes they can.

The diferrence is that in separation cases you have to prove that the separation has being for tow years or more.

When the demand for divorce is based on the grounds of cruel treatment or abandonment, and there are minor children, the court cites the parties to a special hearing called "conciliation." Its purpose is to see if the parties can overcome their differences for the benefit of the children under age. If the parties are not reconciled, the procedures for divorce continue.