In order to file for divorce in the state of Alabama, one of the spouses must have been residing in the state for at least six months before the filing.
When the divorce is filed, the legal grounds for the divorce must be outlined in the documentation. In Alabama there are 12 different statutory grounds for divorce, with the most common being incompatibility and irretrievable breakdown. These two are considered to be not the fault of one party nor the other and they are the ones used most often. The other 10 grounds tend to apportion blame to one party or the other and are: Adultery; abandonment for at least a year; imprisonment for at least two years with minimum sentence of seven years; committing an unnatural crime with man or animal, before or during marriage; addiction after marriage to alcohol or drugs; confinement in a mental hospital for at least five years; incapable of entering into the marriage originally; violent behavior of either spouse; two years living apart and residing in Alabama and if the wife was pregnant when the marriage took place and the husband was unaware of it.
A marriage can also be annulled if one party agreed to the marriage under fraud or duress; one was under 14 at the time of the marriage; under influence of alcohol or drugs when the ceremony happened; no consummation of the marriage; bigamy and incest.
