A limited divorce is Maryland’s version of a legal separation (which we don’t have here in the sense that other states do). In other states, a couple can negotiate and execute a valid marital separation agreement and simply file it with the court and have legal recognition of their intention to live separately and end their marriage. It doesn’t work that way in Maryland. In Maryland, to get the same kind of legal recognition, you have to ask the court for a limited divorce. You can still negotiate and execute a marital separation agreement, but it is not filed separately with the court until a complaint (also known in other states as petition) for absolute divorce is filed. Then, it is attached as an exhibit to the complaint. It is a contract, that you can enforce by asking the court to enforce a contract, but that kind of lawsuit only has to do with the things you or your spouse are supposed to do (or not do), not with your marital status.

Most family law attorneys don’t file for limited divorce if they can help it. Unless the other side won’t negotiate a separation agreement and is doing or not doing something that harms the financial interests of the other spouse, there really isn’t much benefit to it. However, there are plenty of times when a couple does not have grounds for absolute divorce, and the other side will not negotiate an agreement and there are important interests, such as child custody, visitation, or financial support, that need to be addressed right away. Then, the only option is to file for a limited divorce.

A limited divorce does not end the marital relationship. The only thing the court can do with marital property is decide whether or not it is or isn’t marital property. It can’t value it and it can’t divide it. What it CAN do is award alimony (spousal support), issue an order of custody and/or visitation (access) to a non-custodial parent, award child support, and award use and possession of a family home and/or property (along with ordering the non-custodial parent to pay part of expenses related to the family home and/or property).

Grounds for a limited divorce include:

• Desertion – without any time period attached. Remember, this means REAL desertion – as in, no communication, no support, no anything. It does not necessarily mean leaving the home. Although many lawyers file for divorce and claim that just because a spouse left the home they deserted the marriage, if the case gets to trial, they have to prove desertion by a much higher standard than just making the claim when they file for divorce.

• Voluntary Separation – without any time period attached. The separation still means you live under separate roofs, without marital relations and that you intend to end the marriage (or, there isn’t any chance you will ever reconcile).

• Cruelty - usually, it means a pattern of conduct that includes physical violence to you or your kids, but technically, it could be possible to prove cruelty without the violence (but it would be very difficult and extremely rare). Also, in the context of a limited divorce, this ground assumes there is or could be hope for a reconciliation between the parties. I can’t figure this one out, but I suppose it is technically possible. This is not the case when cruelty is claimed for a ground for absolute divorce.

• Excessively vicious conduct – can be a single incident of extreme physical violence to you or your kids, that would make you believe it was likely to happen again. Again, and equally incomprehensible, is that if this is claimed for a limited divorce, it presumes there is, or could be, a hope of reconciliation. Go figure!

Here are some other completely odd parts to the Maryland statute on limited divorce:

• The Court CAN make a couple try to reconcile and CAN decide how they will pay for it. Personally, I think there’s some potential Constitutional problems with this part of the statute, but since I’ve never heard of a court actually doing it, I suppose it hasn’t come up.

• The Court CAN make the limited divorce decree temporary!

• The Court CAN revoke the decree of limited divorce if the couple both ask it to do so.

If someone fails to prove a ground for absolute divorce at trial, the Court CAN give the couple a limited divorce until they can prove a ground for absolute divorce.

If this all sounds bizarre to you, it is! Divorce law is based on the history of the individual state’s ecclesiastic (or church) law. Maryland was founded by the Catholic faith, so it’s laws about divorce, 200 plus years later, reflect that history.