Divorce

Divorce Information

DISCLAIMER: Your Safe Haven, Inc. is providing this information, including pleadings, for informational purposes only. This information does not constitute legal advice. Your Safe haven, Inc. will not give you legal advice or further information about completing or filing these pleadings. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney. Please note, Your Safe Haven, Inc. does not provide paper copies of these documents, but you are welcome to download and print your own copies.

Grounds for divorce include fault, institutionalization, mutual consent, or irretrievable breakdown when the parties lived separate and apart for the required amount of time. For a fault divorce, under Section 3301(a) of the Divorce Code, the court may grant a divorce to the innocent and injured spouse whenever it is judged that the other spouse:

• Committed willful and malicious desertion, and absence from the habitation of the injured and innocent spouse, without reasonable cause, for the period of one or more years.
• Committed adultery.
• By cruel and barbarous treatment, endangered the life or health of the injured and innocent spouse.
• Knowingly entered into a bigamous marriage while a former marriage is subsisting.
• Been sentenced to imprisonment for a term or two or more years upon conviction of having committed a crime.
• Offered such indignities to the innocent and injured spouse as to render that spouse’s condition intolerable and life burdensome.

For a mutual consent divorce, under Section 3301(c), a divorce can be granted when the marriage is irretrievably broken and both parties consent to the divorce. For a divorce under irretrievable breakdown, under Section 3301(d) of the Divorce Code, the court may grant a divorce when the marriage is irretrievably broken and the parties have lived separate and apart for the applicable time of separation. If the parties separated before December 5, 2016, they must live separate and apart for a period of two years. If the parties separated after December 5, 2016, they must live separate and apart for one year.

When filing for divorce, a party can request other relief such as equitable distribution of marital property, alimony, custody, costs and attorney’s fees.

The forms below are for a divorce under Sections 3301(c) (mutual consent) and 3301(d) (irretrievable breakdown) of the Divorce Code only. The forms below do not include other grounds for divorce nor relief such as equitable distribution of marital property, alimony, custody, costs and attorney’s fees. The forms are specific to Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

Please note the recent changes to completing and filing your divorce action. Effective January 6, 2018, litigants and their attorneys must comply with the Public Access Policy (Policy) of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania: Case Records of the Appellate and Trial Courts. To comply, when completing the pleadings to file with the Court, Confidential Information may not be included in the pleadings and Confidential Documents may not be attached to the pleadings in order to limit public access.

Please read the Public Access Policy: Confidential Information and Documents to understand what information may not be included in the pleadings and what other documents you may have to complete and file.

For more information about this policy and how to comply with this policy, please click here.

The Confidential Information Form can be found here.

The Confidential Document Form can be found here.

The Confidential Information Form and Abuse Victim Addendum can be found here.

Please click the links below for more helpful information.

The information provided, as well as the forms, do not constitute legal advice. If you would like legal advice about your specific case, you should contact an attorney.

For instructions on how to complete the forms, please visit this website.