Divorce and Dissolution in Indiana

What Indiana Requires Before You File

 

 

At filing, at least one spouse must have been an Indiana resident or stationed at a U.S. military installation in Indiana for the immediately preceding six months. At least one spouse must have been a resident of the filing county or stationed at a U.S. military installation there for the immediately preceding three months. Indiana does not require you to be separated first, and there is no requirement that anyone be at fault.

 

Nearly every Indiana dissolution proceeds on the ground that the marriage is irretrievably broken. You do not have to prove misconduct, and in most cases misconduct will not change the outcome. There are narrow fault-based grounds, but they are rarely the better route.

 

 

 

The Sixty-Day Waiting Period

 

 

Indiana imposes a mandatory sixty-day waiting period between filing and finalizing. Neither the parties nor the judge can waive it, even when everyone agrees on everything. The fastest possible uncontested case is a little over two months.

 

That period is not dead time. While the case is pending, the court can enter provisional orders covering temporary custody, parenting time, support, who pays which bills, and who stays in the house. Provisional orders are temporary by name, but they establish a status quo that is harder to move than most people expect — which is why the first thirty days matter more than the last thirty.

 

 

 

How Property Is Divided

 

 

Indiana generally includes property owned before marriage and property acquired before the statutory date of final separation, including inherited property and property titled in only one spouse's name. Whether a particular asset belongs in the marital estate can require closer analysis. The court also addresses marital debts.

 

The court begins with a presumption that an equal division of that estate is just and reasonable. The presumption can be rebutted, but it takes evidence, and the statute identifies what kind: how the property was acquired, including before the marriage or by inheritance or gift; each spouse's contribution, including as a homemaker; the economic circumstances of each spouse at the time of division; each spouse's earning ability; and the conduct of the parties as it relates to the disposition of the property.

 

This is where a case is usually won or lost. The pre-marital house, the inheritance that went into a down payment, the retirement account that was half-earned before the wedding — none of those are automatically yours, and none of them are automatically split down the middle. They are arguments, and they have to be made with records.

 

 

 

Spousal Maintenance

 

 

Indiana is restrictive here, and this surprises people who have read about alimony in other states. There is no general entitlement to ongoing support after an Indiana divorce.

 

Court-ordered maintenance is available in three narrow situations: where a spouse is physically or mentally incapacitated to the point that the ability to support themselves is materially affected; where a spouse lacks sufficient property to provide for their needs and is the custodian of a child whose physical or mental incapacity requires that the parent not work; and rehabilitative maintenance, awarded for a limited period to let a spouse retrain or re-enter the workforce. Rehabilitative maintenance is capped at three years from the decree.

 

 

 

Contested and Uncontested

 

 

Most cases are neither at the start. They are partly agreed and partly not, and the work is narrowing the disagreement until what remains is small enough to settle or clear enough to try.

 

If you and your spouse agree on everything, I will tell you so and keep the case simple rather than manufacturing conflict. If you do not agree, I will tell you honestly which of your positions a court is likely to adopt and which are going to cost you more in fees than they are worth. That conversation is more valuable than anything else I do on a dissolution case.

 

One practical note: property division in an Indiana decree is final. Unlike custody and support, it generally cannot be revisited later because the deal turned out badly. It is worth getting right the first time.

 

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