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Will adultery negatively affect a divorce case in California?

You caught your husband cheating, and it made you furious. Before he knew it, you were slapping a divorce paper down in front of him and telling him to get out of the house.

You have photographs and other proof of what happened to end your marriage, but is that really going to affect your case in California? Sadly, the answer is, “probably not.”

California is a no-fault state

To start with, you should remember that California is a no-fault state. That means that the judge will not consider faults when deciding how to divide property or handle other divorce issues. That doesn’t necessarily mean that adultery won’t affect the case, but the cheating itself can’t factor into the judge’s decisions.

On the other hand, the actions of your spouse while cheating could have a negative impact for them. For example, if they spent down your savings account to nothing by doting on another partner, they may end up having to reimburse the estate for those lost funds.

Adultery is not likely to affect child custody, spousal support or other factors, unless it has some kind of severe impact like exposing a child to abuse or your spouse moves in with a partner before being awarded spousal support.

Every case is different, so it’s impossible to say that an affair wouldn’t affect your case at all. However, an affair alone isn’t likely to have a significant impact without other negative factors caused by it, like spending marital funds, taken into consideration. If you would rather not bring up the cheating during your divorce, you may want to consider filing an uncontested divorce instead.

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