Residency Requirements | Must be a bona fide resident within this state for six (6) months next preceding the commencement of the suit. If a member of the armed services of the United States is stationed in the state and residing within the state with his spouse, such person and his spouse shall be considered actual bona fide residents of the state for the purposes of this section, provided they were residing within the state at the time of the separation of the parties. |
Where to File | All complaints, except those based solely on the ground of irreconcilable differences, must be filed in the county in which the plaintiff resides.
A complaint for divorce based solely on the grounds of irreconcilable differences shall be filed in the county of residence of either party where both parties are residents of this state. If one (1) party is not a resident of this state, then the complaint shall be filed in the county where the resident party resides |
Grounds for Divorce | Divorce from the bonds of matrimony may be granted on the ground of irreconcilable differences, but only upon the joint complaint of the husband and wife or a complaint where the defendant has been personally served with process or where the defendant has entered an appearance by written waiver of process.
Complaints for divorce on the ground of irreconcilable differences must have been on file for sixty (60) days before being heard.
Divorces from the bonds of matrimony may be decreed to the injured party for any one or more of the following twelve causes:
- Natural impotency
- Adultery, unless it should appear that it was committed by collusion of the parties for the purpose of procuring a divorce, or unless the parties cohabited after a knowledge by complainant of the adultery.
- Being sentenced to any penitentiary, and not pardoned before being sent there.
- Wilful, continued and obstinate desertion for the space of one year.
- Habitual drunkenness.
- Habitual and excessive use of opium, morphine or other like drug.
- Habitual cruel and inhuman treatment including Spousal Domestic Abuse.
- Insanity or idiocy at the time of marriage, if the party complaining did not know of such infirmity.
- Marriage to some other person at the time of the pretended marriage between the parties.
- Pregnancy of the wife by another person at the time of the marriage, if the husband did not know of such pregnancy.
- Either party may have a divorce if they be related to each other within the degrees of kindred between whom marriage is prohibited by law.
- Incurable insanity.
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Voluntary or required mediation | No |
Voluntary or recommended Counseling | No |
Property Distribution | There are no statutory provisions in Mississippi for considerations regarding property division. However, Mississippi has judicially adopted the "equitable division" systems of property division. |
Child Custody | Custody shall be awarded as follows according to the best interests of the child:
- Physical and legal custody to both parents jointly
- Physical custody to both parents jointly and legal custody to either parent.
- Legal custody to both parents jointly and physical custody to either parent
- Physical and legal custody to either parent.
- Upon a finding by the court that both of the parents of the child have abandoned or deserted such child or that both such parents are mentally, morally or otherwise unfit to rear and train the child the court may award physical and legal custody to the person in whose home the child has been living in a wholesome and stable environment or physical and legal custody to any other person deemed by the court to be suitable and able to provide adequate and proper care and guidance for the child.
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Child Support | Family courts determine how much child support a parent is required to pay by using the Mississippi's child support guidelines.
The total adjusted gross income is determined by addind all gross income from wage and salary income, income from investments, interest income, workers' compensation, disability benefits, alimony, unemployment benefits, and any other form of earned income.
Subtract from that federal, state, and local taxes, social security contributions, non-voluntary retirement and disability contributions and any pre-existing child support orders.
Child support amount is based on a percentage of adjusted gross income and the number of children.
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Spousal Support | Either spouse may be awarded maintenance if it is equitable and just. There are no other factors for consideration specified in the statute. Parsons v. Parsons (1996) spelled our a set of factors for consideration:
- The spouse's income and expenses
- The spouse's health and earnings
- The spouse's needs, obligations, and assets
- The presence of any children
- The spouse's ages
- The standard of living during the marriage
- Any tax consequences
- Any marital fault
- Any wasteful dissipation of assets
- Length of the marriage
- Any other just and equitable factors.
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