Grounds For Divorce

Grounds for Divorce are legal reasons that must be proven by evidence, in order to grant a divorce in Thailand’s Court system.

The principle embodied in the Thailand divorce law is that divorces can only be granted by the Family Court based on “license” or “fault”. In other words, Thailand divorce law requires one spouse to be at “fault” by accusing a situation that gives the other spouse the right to file a divorce complaint.

The need to establish a “ground for divorce” means that Thailand is a traditional family law system. Other jurisdictions do not require fault of “grounds” to be granted a divorce.

In other less traditional jurisdiction, one spouse deserving a divorce can base a claim for divorce without a legal reason or based on “irreconcilable differences”.

One aspect of Thailand’s legal system does however, allow for no-fault, and that is an administrative divorce which is a divorce registered at a government district without presenting a complaint to the Court. (An administrative divorce is allowed only when the spouses originally registered their divorce in Thailand.)

*3 year period of separation
*One spouse has deserted the other for over one year
* The husband has taken another woman as his wife
* The wife has committed adultery
*One spouse is guilty of misconduct (criminal or otherwise)
*One spouse has been imprisoned for more than one year
*One spouse has physically or mentally harmed the other
* Lack of marital support
*One spouse has had incurable insanity for at least 3 years
*One spouse has broken the bond of good behavior
*One spouse has an incurable communicable disease
*One spouse has a physical disability so as to be unable to cohabitate as husband and wife.