Divorce is the term used as both a verb and a noun to describe the formal process of dissolving the contractual nature of a marriage. A divorce is when each person becomes restored to living as a separate individual, with no automatic requirements to share property, income, or debt.
The reason divorce is more than simply a filed certificate is because marriage has continued to evolve into a complex and mostly unwritten contract, much like a business contract, but with only implied full disclosure. The difference from most business contracts is that filing a certificate of marriage at the local courthouse does not require that everyone read all the marital statutes before they are allowed to marry. People going into a marriage are often completely unaware of the extent of underlying commitments and responsibilities that will be legally imposed upon them as a result of simply saying, “I do.”
