According to new estimates cited by USA Today in early May, roughly 79 percent of married couples who separate end up getting divorced in the long run. From the USA Today piece:
The analysis was based on data from 7,272 individuals who were ages 14-22 in 1979 and had ever married. Of those, 51% were still married. Among the rest, 60% report having gone through a marital separation, with most (79%) ultimately divorcing.
The research found that the average length of a first separation is about four years. For respondents who divorce after separating, it’s three years. And for the small number who reunite, the average separation is two years, the study found.
Here, it is the public policy of the State of South Carolina to attempt, wherever and however possible, to preserve marriage between a man and a woman. It is for that reason that a married couple who went through even the most contentious of litigation, while sitting in the Final Hearing mere minutes away from finalizing their divorce, will hear the family court judge ask them, once and for all, whether there is anything that can be done to reconcile. It is also for that reason that the State of South Carolina structures its statutes regarding fault and no-fault divorces in the way that it does.
While it is discussed in more detail in the Divorce & Separation section of this website, if a divorcing couple is seeking a divorce on no-fault grounds–that is, not on grounds of adultery, desertion, physical cruelty, or habitual drunkenness and drug abuse–he and she will have to wait until they have been separated for one full year, and will have to provide a witness who has personal knowledge and can testify to just that.
Given the statistics cited above, if almost four out of every five couples who separate eventually get divorced, is it appropriate for the family court here in the Palmetto State to attempt to preserve marriage as it does? For those who argue that there is no harm in the court asking a couple, one last time, if their marriage could be saved, consider the length of time it takes to dissolve a marriage that is mutually agreed upon to be without hope for reconciliation. Is that fair?