Divorce in France

If you want to file a petition for divorce before the Family Court Judge, you must first determine the procedure you want to use.

Indeed, in France there are 4 forms of divorce.

1. Divorce by mutual consent:

The spouses agree on the principle and the consequences of divorce. Thus, a joint request whose terms are accepted by both parties is submitted to the Judge, who, after having heard the parties and the lawyers, and if he finds no anomalies, can pronounce the divorce.

The agreement signed between the parties determines the consequences of the divorce, in particular with regard to child custody and financial benefits.

In this type of divorce, there is no conciliation procedure. Thus, if the Judge considers that the agreement presented by the parties does not represent any difficulty, he can quickly pronounce the divorce.

The parties can be represented by a single lawyer, or each of them can have their own lawyer.

2. Divorce by acceptance of the principle of separation:  

The spouses agree to divorce, but they do not agree on the consequences of the divorce. It is therefore up to the Judge to decide the question (for example, on the custody of the children, on the division of property, etc.).

A conciliation hearing is mandatory in this type of divorce.

3. Divorce for fault:

You can have recourse to this type of divorce when you are able to prove the fault committed by your husband or wife. It can be violence, infidelity, failure to contribute to household expenses, etc.  

The Judge who will pronounce the divorce will also rule on its consequences, possibly condemning the offending party to compensation.

A conciliation hearing is mandatory in this type of divorce.

4. Divorce for permanent alteration of marital ties:

This procedure allows the party wishing to divorce, even if the other party does not agree, to submit a request for divorce. In this case, the applicant spouse must prove that they have not lived together for at least more than two years. This justification can be done by means of any documents, such as letters received at a new address, lease contract, or any other supporting document.  

A conciliation hearing is mandatory in this type of divorce.

During the duration of the procedure, the Judge will take provisional measures (custody of the children, marital home, alimony, etc.).

Compensatory allowance:

According to article 270 of the Civil Code, the compensatory allowance is granted to the spouse for "  compensate, as far as possible, the disparity that the breakdown of the marriage creates in the respective living conditions  ".

This benefit replaces the duty of assistance and aims to ensure that the debtor spouse has a standard of living at least equivalent to that existing at the time of the marriage. It is granted without distinction between the guilty spouse and the innocent spouse. The spouse required to pay the compensatory allowance may not invoke pretexts based in particular on the behavior of the beneficiary spouse to avoid paying this allowance.

The compensatory allowance  is a form of economic compensation tending to rebalance the pecuniary conditions of life following the divorce.  It can be paid in the form  sum of money, abandonment of property etc.  The disparity in the situation of the spouses, which opens the way to the payment of a compensatory allowance, must be assessed at the time of living together, and not in relation to the situation of one of the parties before the marriage.  This principle is recognized by the Court of Cassation which considered that “  the divorce judge must ignore the probable enrichment of a spouse which would be likely to significantly modify the existence and extent of the disparity in living standards resulting from the breakdown of the marriage  » (Cass. 1st  civil 6  Oct. 2010, no.  09-10989).

According to the Court of Cassation, it is on the day of the pronouncement of the divorce that the disparity between the spouses is assessed, and not in view of the previous situation (Cass. 1ère  civil, 25  September. 2013, no.  12-29429  and Cass. 1st  civil 12  June 2013, no.  11-28839).  

Annulment of marriage

Marriage annulment proceedings are separate from divorce.

The applicant for annulment of the marriage must prove a fault on the part of the other party, for example, when the latter contracted marriage for the sole purpose of obtaining a residence permit in France.