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Getting Divorced

15 V.S.A. § 551 — six consecutive months apart with no reasonable chance of reconciling is one of the grounds

A divorce may be decreed when a married person has lived apart from the spouse for six consecutive months and the court finds resuming the marriage not reasonably probable. The other grounds the section lists include adultery, intolerable severity, willful desertion, and a persistent refusal to support.

  • 15 V.S.A. § 551
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  • A complaint may be filed once either spouse has lived in the state six months or more.
  • No divorce is decreed unless one of them has lived in the state for the year before the final hearing.
  • Either spouse may ask for temporary relief once they have separated, and the court issues an order within 14 days of the hearing.
Sources for this section (3)
  1. 15 V.S.A. § 551 — Grounds for divorce from bond of matrimony
  2. 15 V.S.A. § 592 — Residence
  3. 15 V.S.A. § 594a — Temporary relief

Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Vermont attorney.

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