Definition

• According to the state legislature's website, "divorce" means the judicial termination of a marriage contract. The termination of a marriage contract must be based on misconduct or other statutory cause arising after the marriage. A divorce is established by the order of a family court or circuit court, which changes the status of a husband and wife from a state of marriage to that of single people.
  
  

Significance

• The law outlines the legal actions that must be taken in a divorce, including child support, grounds for divorce and division of property. It also defines the legal meaning of divorce.
  
  

Location

• The West Virginia divorce law is located under Chapter 48 entitled: Domestic Relations.
  
  

Grounds

• West Virginia law describes adequate grounds for divorce as irreconcilable differences, voluntary separation, cruel or inhuman treatment, adultery, conviction of a crime, permanent or incurable insanity, habitual drunkenness or drug addiction, abuse or neglect of a child.
  
  

Considerations

• The law also defines an "Antenuptial agreement" or "prenuptial agreement" as an agreement between a man and woman before marriage, but in contemplation and generally in consideration of marriage, by which the property rights and interests of the prospective husband and wife, or both of them, are determined, or where property is secured to either or both of them, to their separate estate, or to their children or other people.