Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: Divorce that may be contested

With no children, after living separate and apart for six months, you're entitled in Virginia to file a petition for a no-fault decree of divorce.

Issues allegedly involving blame or wrongdoing on

the part of one or both spouses such as the one you mentioned are not allowed in no fault divorce proceedings.

Re: Divorce that may be contested

If you do leave the house there is a chance he could sue for divorce based on abandonment. However, the only thing abandonment will give him is perhaps a bigger share of the marital estate. You say you have no shared assets but do you have marital assets. It does not matter how the property is titled when determining which property is marital and which is separate. It depends on when the property was acquired. At the end of the day it is usually not worth filing based on abandonment except in a few cases.

You don't have to take off of work to get advice from me. Give my office a call and I'll give you an idea over the phone whether leaving will hurt your case. You can call either my VA office at 703-968-3974 or my MD office at 301-652-0663. Good luck to you.