Abandonment as Grounds for Divorce

• Tennessee divorce laws offer two grounds for abandonment. You can file on the ground of desertion if it was "willful" or "malicious." This generally means that your spouse left you without any good reason. He has to have been absent from the home you shared for a period of a year or more. You can also file for divorce on the ground of abandonment if your spouse leaves, or forces you to leave, and refuses to help you financially afterward. There is no time limit for this ground, but you'd have to be able to establish that he's not contributing to your support, which could take a few months.
  
  

Effect of Abandonment on Alimony

• Tennessee judges may consider fault when awarding alimony. This means if your spouse walks out on you, and especially if she refuses to give you any money for the marital bills or to provide for yourself afterward, this is grounds for not only granting you a divorce but to award you alimony as well. You'd have to file for divorce on the ground of abandonment or desertion for a judge to grant you alimony because of her wrongdoing.
  
  

Duration of Alimony

• Regardless of your spouse's fault in abandoning you, a Tennessee judge will usually only award alimony "in futuro," or until your spouse dies or you remarry or cohabit with someone, if you were married for a considerable length of time. If you were only married five to 10 years, a judge might give you rehabilitative or transitional alimony for a period of a few years to allow you time to get back on your feet financially. Tennessee also awards lump sum or "in solido" alimony, but this would not necessarily apply if you're receiving alimony because of your spouse's wrongdoing. Lump sum alimony adjusts for unequal property distribution so that both spouses get a fair share of everything earned or acquired during the course of the marriage.
  
  

Tips

• If you file for divorce on the ground of abandonment rather than desertion, so you avoid having to wait out the year to be able to file, it may be possible for you to get temporary alimony within a reasonable amount of time after your spouse leaves you. This would prevent you from falling too far behind on your bills. "Pendente lite" alimony grants you support money each month while your divorce is moving through the judicial process. It's important to ask for ongoing alimony in your divorce petition, however. If you neglect to do so, you can't go back to court later and ask for it after your divorce is final.