Covenant Marriage in Louisiana: Why Getting Out Is Harder Than Getting In

Most people who call us about a divorce have never heard the words covenant marriage. A smaller group has heard them, because they are standing in the middle of one, and they have just learned that the divorce their friends got in six months is not available to them.

Louisiana created covenant marriage in 1997. Only a handful of states ever followed. It was designed to be harder to leave, and it is. If you signed a declaration of intent for a covenant marriage, either at the time of your wedding or later when you converted an existing marriage, the ordinary Louisiana divorce rules do not govern your case. A separate statute does.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE A COVENANT MARRIAGE?

You would have signed a specific document called a declaration of intent, and your marriage certificate or the recordation of the declaration should reflect it. Couples also had to go through premarital counseling that addressed the nature of covenant marriage. If you are not sure, the clerk of court in the parish where the license was issued can tell you. Do not guess. We have seen people file the wrong kind of petition and lose months.

REGULAR DIVORCE VERSUS COVENANT DIVORCE

In a regular Louisiana marriage, a spouse can get a no fault divorce after living separate and apart for 180 days if there are no minor children, or 365 days if there are. Nobody has to prove anything was anyone’s fault.

A covenant marriage does not work that way. The spouse seeking the divorce has to prove one of a short list of grounds. Under the statute those grounds are:

• Adultery by the other spouse.
• The other spouse committed a felony and was sentenced to death or imprisonment at hard labor.
• The other spouse abandoned the matrimonial domicile for at least one year and constantly refuses to return.
• The other spouse physically or sexually abused the spouse seeking the divorce or a child of either spouse.
• The spouses have lived separate and apart continuously for two years.
• A judgment of separation from bed and board was signed, and the spouses have lived separate and apart since that judgment for the required period.

Two years is the number that surprises people. Without fault, a covenant spouse is looking at two years of living apart, or a two step process through a separation judgment. That is four times the waiting period of a regular marriage without children.

SEPARATION FROM BED AND BOARD STILL EXISTS HERE

Most Louisiana couples will never hear the phrase. Separation from bed and board was abolished for regular marriages decades ago. It survives only for covenant marriages. It is a court judgment that says you are legally separated but still married. It can address custody, support and use of the home. It does not end the marriage, but it starts a clock toward divorce, and for many covenant spouses it is the fastest honest path out.

THE COUNSELING REQUIREMENT

The covenant statute requires spouses to take reasonable steps to preserve the marriage, including counseling, before seeking a divorce or separation. That requirement does not apply when the ground is abuse. No one is required to sit in a counselor’s office with someone who hurt them or their child.

CAN WE JUST GET DIVORCED IN ANOTHER STATE?

People ask this constantly. Another state’s court may be willing to grant a divorce under its own law once one spouse meets that state’s residency requirement, and there is no clean answer on whether Louisiana will always respect that decree. It also does not solve custody, property or support, which usually still have to be handled where the children and assets are. Moving to escape a covenant marriage is rarely faster than doing it correctly here.

CAN WE CONVERT BACK TO A REGULAR MARRIAGE?

No. Louisiana lets a regular married couple convert into a covenant marriage. There is no statute that lets a covenant couple convert back. The covenant is permanent until the marriage ends.

WHAT THIS MEANS IF YOU ARE IN ONE

The grounds you plead shape everything else in the case. Adultery and abuse require proof, and that proof has to be gathered correctly and early. If the path is two years of separation, the date you actually began living separate and apart becomes a fact the other side may fight about, so it needs to be documented from day one. And if you have children, custody and support can be addressed long before the divorce itself is final.

If you are in a covenant marriage in Baton Rouge or anywhere in Louisiana and want to know which path fits your facts, call us at 225-341-6945. We will tell you honestly how long it will take.