As some people have asked me about the legal causes that can give grounds for a divorce lawsuit to be accepted by the Courts of the Dominican Republic, I share with you this general information that presents the reasons or grounds on which a divorce lawsuit can be based . divorce as well as the procedure that must be carried out before our Courts.
Law Number 1306-BIS dated May 21, 1937. GO Number 5034, modified by Law Number 3932 of September 20, 1954. GO Number 7749, regulates Divorce in the Dominican Republic.
The norm contained in Article 1 of said Law on the causes of dissolution of marriage establishes that:
The marriage is dissolved by the death of one of the spouses or by divorce.
Paragraph I.- However, in harmony with the essential properties of Catholic marriage, it is understood that, by the very fact of celebrating a Catholic marriage, the spouses waive the civil right to request a divorce, which for this reason cannot be applied by Civil Courts to canonical marriages.
However, regarding the grounds for divorce , our legislation contemplates several independent reasons, each one of which can be taken into account by the Civil Courts when weighing the demands for divorce and accepting or rejecting them. The norm contained in Article 2 establishes that:
The grounds for divorce are:
a) The mutual consent of the spouses.
b) The incompatibility of characters justified by facts whose magnitude as a cause of unhappiness of the spouses and of social disturbance, sufficient to motivate the divorce, will be appreciated by the judges.
c) The absence decreed by the Court in accordance with the prescriptions contained in Chapter II of Title IV of the first book of the Civil Code.
d) The adultery of any of the spouses.
e) The condemnation of one of the spouses to a criminal penalty.
Paragraph.-. Divorce may not be requested for this reason if the conviction is the sanction of political crimes.
f) Serious abuse or injury committed by one of the spouses with respect to the other.
g) The voluntary abandonment of one of the spouses from the home, provided that they do not return to it within a period of two years. This period will have as its starting point the authentic notification made to the spouse who has left the home by the other spouse.
h) The habitual drunkenness of one of the spouses, or the habitual or immoderate use of narcotic drugs.
Regarding the divorce procedure for a specific cause, the aforementioned Law Number 1306-BIS establishes in the norm contained in its Article 3 that the divorce action for a specific cause must be filed before the Court or Court of First Instance of the Judicial District in the which the defendant resides, if he has a known residence in the Dominican Republic or before the same Court of residence of the plaintiff otherwise.
To carry out the divorce process for a specific cause in the Dominican Republic , the intervention of a private lawyer is required because it implies at first the seizure of the Court of First Instance of the Competent Judicial District through the formalities of a lawsuit. Likewise, the knowledge of the audience and the effective partition of the parties involved in the divorce process regarding issues as important as the custody of the children, the division of assets, resources, among others, deserves timely advice. from a lawyer in the Dominican Republic .
The divorce process for a specific cause in our country also involves a phase that can be considered administrative. And it is that after the Court of First Instance of the Competent Judicial District issues its decision or sentence accepting the divorce petition , it is necessary to make a publication of it in addition to the pronouncement before the competent Civil Registry Office. It is good to indicate that if these last two procedures are not carried out within the periods required by the regulations contained in Law Number 1306-BIS of the Dominican Republic , it will be necessary to start the process again as if it had not been carried out.
