Bill: WA should have 1-year wait time for divorce

February 15, 2013 @ 3:51 pm

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - People filing for divorce in Washington state must now wait 90 days before it can become final.

But under a bill heard Friday in the state Senate Law and Justice Committee, that waiting period would be extended to one year.

Bill supporters say it would give couples more time to reconcile and could result in fewer divorces. In addition, they assert, because divorce is correlated with higher rates of poverty and juvenile delinquency, the measure would save the state money in social services.

"Increasing the waiting time for dissolution will be beneficial to families of our state and certainly will be beneficial to taxpayers of our state," said Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, the bill's sponsor.

Opponents say the measure, Senate Bill 5614, is unduly paternalistic.

"We're talking about adults here," said Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle. "They have the opportunity for counseling without us having to force it on them."

The measure, which supporters call the Family Second Chance Act, would allow for speedier divorces in cases when one partner has been convicted of a violent or sexual felony against the other or against a child, as well as in cases in which a court has issued a final civil protection order against one of the parties stemming from threats of violence.

Advocates for victims of domestic violence say those exceptions are too narrow. Sen. Mike Padden, a Spokane Valley Republican who chairs the committee, said he was open to amending the measure to allow for more domestic violence victims to have their divorces expedited.

Waiting periods for divorces to become final vary by state. While 28 states have no waiting periods, two have mandatory waits of one year and one state, Arkansas, requires that couples wait 18 months before completing a divorce.

Bill supporters note a correlation between states with high divorce rates and those with no waiting period.

Of the 44 states with 2010 divorce rates listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention _ the latest year for which it provides statistics _ 11 of the top 12 had mandatory waiting periods of no more than one month.

However, opponents counter, Arkansas had the second-highest 2010 divorce rate, of 5.7 divorces per 1,000 people.

Washington state's 2010 divorce rate was 4.2 per 1,000 people, above the national average.

The bill would also change a court-issued handbook for divorcing couples to include the benefits of reconciliation and make it required reading for both parties.

Padden said he wasn't sure whether the measure had the votes to make it out of committee. Policy-related bills face a Feb. 22 deadline to be passed out of their committees.

___

Follow AP Writer Jonathan Kaminsky at http://www.twitter.com/jekaminsky


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (5)


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  • Pair o'dimes wrote...
    Better a one year wait time for marriage
    February 15, 2013 10:35 am
    If people spent more time reflecting on the requirements for a good marriage there would be fewer divorces. Once divorce proceedings have started, most of the damage has been done. Why not couples counseling and legal counseling before the marriage, and allow couples to have a more realistic view of their chances before children are part of the picture?
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  • dori monson fan wrote...
    pairodimes
    February 15, 2013 10:52 am
    that would create a lot more children with down's syndrome. better to have more divorce and less children with down's than vice versa.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    Here Goes the Party of Less Government...
    February 15, 2013 5:15 pm
    ....trying to run our lives again per their moral code.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    Why not a 2 year wait...
    February 15, 2013 5:54 pm
    Why not a 3 year wait... Why not a 4 year wait... Why not a 5 year wait... etc...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    This is for the LAWYERS
    February 15, 2013 7:11 pm
    Anyone who's ever gone through a divorce knows that the attorneys laugh their assess off all the way to the bank. All this stupid bill will do is give the scumbag lawyers more time to figure out how they can extract even more money from the couple....ummm or ..the MAN'S MONEY....this is just more stupid NANNY STATE BS....of course, now that Gay Marriage is legal this is most likely in play for that exact reason. GOOD LUCK SUCKERS
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }