Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Re: Reverting A Divorce

Rule in NC is that absolute divorce is granted based

on parties having been separated for a period of 1 year.

Case law indicates that isolated instances of sexual

intercourse do not toll the statutory period, however

a protacted period of reconciliation probably would.

Now, the problem is that plaintiff filed a verified

(sworn) complaint alleging the one year period. The

court undoubedly accepted that statement and

granted the divorce. Question for the court

becomes were you lying then or are you lying now.

When a remarriage is involved, this smells like

spite based on child custody or something else.

Court will probably do something like accuse

the plaintiff of abusing the system or fraud, charge

court costs, avoid the question. Court

probably not interested in having to rule

that divorce is invalid based on false swearing

and open the door for bigamy, especially since

this does smell of spite.