Making Divorce a Disaster? The Misguided Fight to Repeal No-Fault Divorce with Professor Marcia Zug on Divorce & Beyond #364

Susan Guthrie welcomes special guest Marcia Zug, a family law expert and law professor, to discuss the move to repeal no-fault divorce laws. As reform proposals emerge across several states, this conversation explores what a shift back to fault-based divorce could mean for individuals, families, and the legal system. 

Marcia offers insights into the history of no-fault divorce, the forces behind this legislative push, and the potential impacts on personal freedom, safety, and family dynamics. Tune in for an eye-opening look at the fight to preserve no-fault divorce and the disastrous implications for your rights and future.

Featured Topics:

• Understanding the difference between fault divorce and no-fault divorce and what each requires
• The origins of no-fault divorce laws and how California became the first state to pass them in 1969
• The impact of repealing no-fault divorce, including its wider social and political implications
• The future of no-fault divorce, the momentum behind repeal efforts, and whether there are movements to protect or expand these laws

Golden nuggets:

• “If we want more people to get married, I think they need to understand both what marriage does for them and how it might be beneficial, but also not scare them by locking them into a marriage that they could never get out of.”
• “By forcing people to rehash all of the horrible things that have gone on in the marriage,  it brings a lot of animosity to the divorce and makes negotiation and compromises much, much harder.”
• “ Even though cruelty was grounds for divorce, it wasn't protecting victims of violence in marriages. No-fault was seen as a solution to that.  States reluctantly accepted it, not because they liked divorce, but because they recognized that it was needed because divorce to fault grounds was deadly, particularly to women.”

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About this week's special guest: Marcia Zug Marcia Zug is a Family Law professor at the Jospeh F. Rice School of law at the University of South Carolina. Her latest book, You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other than Love explores the instrumental use of marriage and the role of marriage in modern society.

Marcia’s book: You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love

Mentioned in this episode: Uxoricide / Marticide: When a spouse kills their spouse. Beyond Divorce: Healing the Invisible Scars of Domestic Abuse with Beverly Price

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SUSAN GUTHRIE®, ESQ., the creator and host of The Divorce and Beyond® Podcast, has been nationally recognized as one of the top family law and divorce mediation attorneys in the country for more than 30 years.  Susan is the Chair of the American Bar Association