Finding out your spouse is cheating or has cheated can be devastating for a marriage. Often times that leads to divorce. SO how does infidelity affect your divorce? Well….it doesn’t.

No Fault State

This is often hard to hear for the one that has been cheated on but Washington is a no fault state. That means you don’t need to find a reason above ““irretrievable broken”. That means the court is not interested in why you are divorcing. No one is responsible for the divorce or “at fault.” The marriage just isn’t working and cannot be fixed. So while you may want to crucify your spouse for cheating, you won’t be doing that in court.

Spousal Maintenance

Alimony or spousal maintenance as it is currently known, is always a big issue in a divorce. It gets even bigger when there has been cheating. Those who have been cheated on want to know if they get more and those who did the cheating want to know if they have to pay more. So does cheating change your spousal maintenance? No. Maintenance is determine on a variety of factors. Length of marriage, education level, need, and standard of living to name a few. A factor that is not used to determine maintenance is adultery.

While being cheating on is painful, it is not going to get you more money or affect the results of your divorce.