{"id":5851,"date":"2026-03-16T11:01:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=5851"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:01:38","slug":"do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey.html","title":{"rendered":"Do You Have to Be Separated Before Filing for Divorce in New Jersey?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common misconceptions about divorce is the belief that spouses must live apart for a specific period of time before they file for divorce.<\/p>\n<p>In New Jersey, physical separation is not required before filing for divorce. While separation can be relevant in certain cases, it is not required in order to begin the divorce process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Separation Is Only One Possible Ground for Divorce<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading Do You Have to Be Separated Before Filing for Divorce in New Jersey?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common misconceptions about divorce is the belief that spouses must live apart for a specific period of time before they file for divorce. In New Jersey, physical separation is not required before filing for divorce. While separation can be relevant in certain cases, it is not required in order to begin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[246,65,93],"tags":[],"coauthors":[186],"class_list":["post-5851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-family-law-insights","category-insights","category-mcglew"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Do You Have to Be Separated Before Filing for Divorce in New Jersey? &#8212; March 16, 2026 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most common misconceptions about divorce is the belief that spouses must live apart for a specific period of time before they file for divorce.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do You Have to Be Separated Before Filing for Divorce in New Jersey? &#8212; March 16, 2026 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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Firm News &amp; Events","description":"One of the most common misconceptions about divorce is the belief that spouses must live apart for a specific period of time before they file for divorce.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do You Have to Be Separated Before Filing for Divorce in New Jersey? &#8212; March 16, 2026 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","og_description":"One of the most common misconceptions about divorce is the belief that spouses must live apart for a specific period of time before they file for divorce.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/do-you-have-to-be-separated-before-filing-for-divorce-in-new-jersey.html","og_site_name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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