A bill filed in the North Carolina Senate would make two major changes to North Carolina family laws.
Senate Bill 626 filed on March 26, 2025, would reduce the waiting period for filing a divorce from one year to six months. Additionally, if there are no minor children and the divorce is uncontested, the parties could waive the six-month waiting period.
The proposal also includes a provision that would waive the six-month waiting period for victims of domestic violence.
These divorce changes aren’t likely to pass given the current political climate, but the times are changing so anything is possible. I think an adjustment for domestic violence would be the most likely change, but even that has drawbacks including the potential that accusations of domestic violence could be fabricated to obtain a divorce sooner. I expect these arguments would play out in committee unless they simply kill the bill.
Finally, the law would abolish the torts of alienation of affection and criminal conversation in North Carolina. Legislators have attempted to abolish these torts before, but the legislation never passed. I don’t expect the outcome to be any different this time as the political will to abolish these two archaic torts doesn’t seem to be there. There are interests on both sides of the political divide that want these laws to stay in place and could threaten politicians who vote to abolish them.
North Carolina is only one of six states that has alienation of affection laws.