When it comes to divorce, some people believe it should take two to tangle.
After a generation of no-fault divorce in America, lawmakers in some states are being asked to make it harder for a husband or wife to walk away from a marriage when one spouse does not want to call it off."Our divorce laws should not make it easy to walk away from personal responsibility and parental obligation," Michigan State Rep. Jessie Dalman says. Proposals in several states to make contested divorces more difficult to obtain are supported by conservative groups seeking to promote family values.
"Why do we have state laws that favor divorce over marriage?' " says Randall Hekman, founder of the conservative Michigan Family Forum.
"We have two people entering into this marriage covenant till death do us part. Then government takes the side of the party that wants divorce," Hekman says.
The Michigan proposal would revive, in contested divorce cases, the old requirement that one spouse show the other was "at fault" - such as being unfaithful, abusive, a drug user or someone who deserts the marriage.
That would be a big shift from current divorce laws.
Every state has enacted some type of no-fault divorce law since California put the first one on the books in 1970.
Under such laws, someone can get a divorce on the ground the marriage has broken down, without having to claim wrongdoing by the other spouse. No-fault divorces can be obtained even if one spouse does not agree to dissolve the marriage.
The laws were enacted to take some of the acrimony out of divorce, although judges in many states still consider fault in dividing property and awarding child custody.
Many lawyers who specialize in divorce think reviving a fault requirement is a bad idea.
"I don't think you can force people to live together, and even if you could you can't make them be nice to each other," says Fred Morganroth, chairman of the Michigan bar association's family-law section.
It is true the divorce rate has risen sharply since the late 1960s, but only about 15 percent of the increase can be attributed to no-fault divorce, Morganroth says.
The American Bar Association's national family law section surveyed its members and found that 84 percent opposed a return to fault-based divorces, even though such a change might boost business for them.
"This would be the `lawyer relief act' to litigate fault," said attorney Randy J. Fuerst of Lake Charles, La.
"Putting fault back in divorce, our survey shows, would only intensify the acrimony and litigation and fighting and tearing apart of children that no-fault was initially designed to ease," said Ira Lurvey, a Los Angeles lawyer and head of the ABA's family-law section.
Besides Michigan, limits on no-fault have been proposed in several states, including Iowa. Proposals in Colorado, Washington and West Virginia would let couples sign contracts making their marriages harder to dissolve.