3.6.1 General Principles

Article 103 contains the immediate causes for divorce. The no-fault basis requires that the parties have lived separate and apart continuously without reconciliation for the requisite period of time as per La. C.C. art. 103.1. The remaining grounds allow for an immediate fault-based divorce:

• The other spouse has committed adultery. 
• The other spouse has committed a felony and has been sentenced to death or imprisonment at hard labor.
• During the marriage, the other spouse physically or sexually abused the spouse seeking divorce or a child of one of the spouses, regardless of whether the other spouse was prosecuted for the act of abuse.
• After a contradictory hearing or consent decree, a protective order or an injunction was issued during the marriage against the other spouse to protect the spouse seeking the divorce or a child of one of the spouses from abuse.1

Note that under La. C.C. art. 103(5), a stepparent spouse can obtain an Article 103 divorce based upon obtaining a protective order or injunction filed for the purpose of protecting the stepchild from abuse by the spouse who is the child’s biological parent. 

• 1Stay away orders instituted as a condition of release from prison or jail are considered protective orders for the purpose of protection from domestic violence. State v. Kumar, 46,056, p. 9 (La. App. 2 Cir. 3/2/11), 58 So. 3d 544, 551.