Separation Date for Uncontested Divorce in Alabama

When I file papers for an uncontested divorce in Alabama, I must state a separation date that has already occurred by the time I file the complaint for divorce. It's not necessary that the husband and wife be living under different roofs. It is necessary, however, that after this date they have no longer lived together as husband and wife.

If the two of you get divorced by agreement and your divorce is uncontested, the separation date has no practical impact on your case. If you and your spouse do not agree on the terms and you later end up in an adversarial divorce, there may be some jockeying for position about when the separation occurs, because one of you may want to push forward or backward the date when you stopped sharing income and/or expenses.

Most of the couples who come to my office for uncontested divorce end up approaching it one of these ways:

• If they no longer live in the same residence, they tend to use the most recent date on which they stopped sharing a residence.
• If they still live together, they sometimes use the date on which they stopped having sex together.
• Sometimes they use the date on which they decided to prepare papers for divorce.
• Sometimes they use the date on which we actually prepare the papers.