Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Re: Marriage abandonment

I think you should consult with an attorney. You will need to decide if you want to remain married to someone who does not want to be married to you.

Daniel Clement

Re: Marriage abandonment

Divorce Abandonment can be Actual or Constructive.

Constructive Abandonment can include, but is not limited to: sexual abandonment- refusal to have sex; lock-out- from the house or bedroom; cruel and inhuman treatment or abuse; keeping company with another in a "spousal way" to the actual spouse's exclusion- not necessarily rising to the level of provable adultery. In a word, doing virtually, anything that expresses the spouse's intent to "Abandon" the marriage and never to return.

However, in your Answer to the complaint, you can counterclaim for her "actual" physical abandonment of you and the marriage, due her leaving; and you can be granted a divorce on those grounds, if proved.

Note, it is generally more difficult (and messier) to prove constructive abandonment than a [counter] claim for actual abandonment.

GOOD LUCK,

PHROSKA L. McALISTER,ESQ