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Divorce in Washington could require one-year waiting period, instead of current 90 days

BY Jamie Skorheim  on February 12, 2013 @ 11:06 am (Updated: 12:23 pm - 2/12/13 )

A new bill being considered in Olympia would make getting a divorce in Washington state a slightly longer process.

Senate Bill 5614 would extend the waiting period for granting a divorce from 90 days to a year.

After hearing of the proposal on KIRO Radio's Ross and Burbank Show, show contributor Tom Tangney said, "Here, here."

"I don't think in general people take marriage seriously, so anything that forces people to take a longer time to get unmarried to me is a positive," said Tangney.

Being raised Catholic, Tangney said there was also a waiting period to get married, and he thinks such policies are useful to make sure everyone respects the seriousness of the union.

For those that might be leaving one marriage to quickly get into another, this could slow down people's ability to rush into another mistake, Tom points out.

"If you had to wait a year, that bright, shiny thing that might be attracting you may be a little less shiny in a year's time, and you may say, you know what my issues with her are no different than my first wife."

The only host in the conversation to have gone through a divorce, Luke Burbank, shared his experience and said the process is actually pretty tough as it is.

"If there is this idea that it's just the easiest thing to do and that you just go online and you check a couple boxes and you just walk away, it is more involved than that," said Burbank.

"There's a lot of paperwork involved. I found out after all the stuff that I went through. I got divorced years ago in California. Again we had lawyers it was all very official, went to family court, unmarried, signed all the paperwork. I got a text from my ex two or three years later that said, 'Hey, I just found out we're still technically married.' Because my lawyer had failed to file some last piece of some paperwork."

Dave Ross and Tom said they find it heartening to hear it's not such an easy thing to break up a marriage.

"It should mean something," said Ross.

Luke said he doesn't have a problem with them extending the waiting period, but in his experience he wants folks to know it's not something that's super easy even under current conditions.

The bill says if they can reduce the number of divorces, even by a slight amount, it could be useful to our state.

"Divorce causes poverty, juvenile delinquency, and lower scholastic achievement among children of our state. Even a modest reduction of divorce in our state could be beneficial to children," the bill says.

Jamie Skorheim, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Whether it's floating on Green Lake, eating shrimp tacos at Agua Verde, or taking weekend drives out to the Cascades, she loves to enjoy the Pacific Northwest lifestyle as much as humanly possible.
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Comments (26)


  • Add A Comment

  • Matt Lattanzi wrote...
    Don't get married!
    February 12, 2013 2:32 pm
    There is very little in it for men nowadays. I can do almost everything a married person can do, plus I do not have to giver her half of my stuff when she files for divorce, because it is the woman 75% of the time who files.
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  • CH wrote...
    Why buy the cow
    February 12, 2013 2:33 pm
    when you can get the milk for free. No flounder I don't want your cow. BLAWN might.
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  • SeattleD wrote...
    This is not a good idea
    February 12, 2013 5:57 pm
    In today's gun crazy culture where you can get a gun with no waiting period but you have to wait a year to get a divorce...

    well I'm not going to put two and two together for you.

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  • rational wrote...
    Hypocrisy much?
    February 12, 2013 7:01 pm
    I thought you progressives were against legislating morality. Apparently not.

    Just catching on that undermining marriage is a bad thing? Isn't that what folks have been telling you all along?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • AKAF wrote...
    OK...these people will divorce
    February 12, 2013 11:12 pm
    and then get married again, if they find it wrong, and divorced again when it is right again. Why the "new" requirement. The State can make money off the numerous divorces and remarriages. I'm surprised the state, money hungry as they are, haven't issued a coffee stand that provides both coffee and divorces...then marriages again.
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  • AtheisticallyYours wrote...
    TERM DESIGNATIONS!
    February 13, 2013 8:43 am
    The idea of any level of government being involved in the DIVORCE process, is as STUPID as it is involved in the marriage process! This can all be averted however, by just having a "TERM DESIGNATION" on a marriage license! Keep it short, say, 2 years for an initial license, and then expand the length of it as the marriage stays "successful". For those marriages that do NOT last, let it reach the end of the marriage license's "term", and the marriage ENDS. End of problem! No divorce needed!
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  • rkris1 wrote...
    this is actually
    February 13, 2013 9:58 am
    pretty d**n clever
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  • rkris1 wrote...
    "Divorce causes..."
    February 13, 2013 9:56 am
    Says the article: "'Divorce causes poverty, juvenile delinquency, and lower scholastic achievement among children of our state. Even a modest reduction of divorce in our state could be beneficial to children,' the bill says." Once again, legislators are either too daft to understand or hold the public in too much contempt to acknowledge the difference between correlation and causation, and reporters fail to point it out.
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  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    If one year is better than 90 days
    February 14, 2013 12:43 pm
    Why don't they make the wait time 2 years, or 4 years. What is the government even doing in this area of my personal life. This is between me and my wife, not between me and the gov. Note: we have been married 32 years.
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  • Rastaman wrote...
    Reminds me of the movie Idiocracy!
    February 17, 2013 9:39 pm
    I cannot believe lawmakers would completely disregard those persons subject to domestic violence or an affair or a spouse shacking up with someone else for their own selfish holier than thou interests. My ex-spouse had a 1 1/2 year long affair with a co-worker and when I went to divorce her butt I couldn't believe I had to wait 90 days, I was pissed! It would have driven me nuts if i had to wait a year. Can you imagine a woman being beaten by her lousy husband having to wait a year, these lawmakers need to stay out of it!
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