posted: 8:38 am on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
filed in: Adultery
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N.C. House bill 681 was filed some time last week and is in committee.
Some have advocated to abolish this bill like divorce attorney Lee Rosen who says ‘these torts are archaic methods for eliminating infidelity and do not protect marital relationships’.
N.C. is only one of a handful of states that still has these laws in the books. Do you think they should be abolished?
Here’s a Newsweek article that ran in December citing Lee Rosen about this.
January 27th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
The tort is and should be acceptable, If more people used this law there would be alot less divorce and more marriage counseling going on but I geuss it would be bad for lawyers .. good for family
February 20th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I agree with this act. People need to take marriages more seriously. There are times when a marriage could possibly work if another party was not involved. When a third party is involved in a marriage it completely complicates things and gives the adulterer a reason not to work on the marriage. When people get married they are bond by words and law, so the law should be able to step in and assist. People should take more time to get to know who they are with and make sure that that person is not married. Just as ignorance is not a defense in crime, it should not be a defense in adultery. In most cases, those that are guilty of alienation of affection or criminal conversation are fully aware that the party is married, but decide to ignore the possibility. I applaud NC and this is one of the reasons I live here because NC is true to morals. Mr. Rosen, please be aware that many families are destroyed because nasty, inconsiderate, self-centered people choose not to be responsible. I think there should be a law that their is mandatory marriage counseling required for 1 year before a divorce can be granted, unless there is physical abuse.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
How many times were you enamored of someone before your marriage only to have that person not return your affection? Shouldn’t this tell you how difficult it is to MAKE one person fall in love with another? Why is it an assumption that a 3rd party can just waltz right into someone’s life and brainwash them into loving them and disliking that person’s present spouse with whom they have had a life, family, and history?
No, this law needs to go away right now. It doesn’t protect marriage, it allows the partners in the marriage to avoid reponsibility for their own behaviour during the marriage by foisting it off on someone else. It is much easier to point to someone else than it is to acknowledge that painful realization that either one’s behaviour in part caused the failure of the marriage, especially if it means that they will have to change.
The problem is that the wounded need a sense of control over their lives, a way to stop the pain of separation/divorce. AA/CC lawsuits thrive on this feeling of powerlessness. Very few of the AA/CC lawsuits are actually brought into the courts, the accusation is most commonly used to gain leverage in separation/alimony proceedings. It benefits no one, except for perhaps an attorney or two here or there.
If the state REALLY wanted to honor the marriage state, they would require a minimum of six months premarital counselling prior to marriage. A requirement of pre-divorce counselling would be good too.