Can I Date if Legally Separated in the state of SC?

[SCGirl89]

My husband and I are now just starting the separation process of our divorce. When am I able to date without getting in trouble with the law? I am in South Carolina.

 

[TheGeekess]

My husband and I are now just starting the separation process of our divorce. When am I able to date without getting in trouble with the law? I am in South Carolina.

You could start today, I suppose.

Non-legal advice: Why are you worried about dating? Until you're divorced, you'd be committing adultery. And if there are children involved, then that's even more reprehensible. I'd take care of the divorce and spend some time getting my head back on straight before I went looking for another person.

Title 20 - Domestic Relations

CHAPTER 3.

DIVORCE

ARTICLE 1.

DIVORCES IN THIS STATE

SECTION 20-3-10. Grounds for divorce.

No divorce from the bonds of matrimony shall be granted except upon one or more of the following grounds, to wit:

(1) Adultery;

(2) Desertion for a period of one year;

(3) Physical cruelty;

(4) Habitual drunkenness; provided, that this ground shall be construed to include habitual drunkenness caused by the use of any narcotic drug; or

(5) On the application of either party if and when the husband and wife have lived separate and apart without cohabitation for a period of one year. A plea of res judicata or of recrimination with respect to any other provision of this section shall not be a bar to either party obtaining a divorce on this ground.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 20-101; 1952 Code Section 20-101; 1949 (46) 216; 1952 (47) 2142; 1969 (56) 172; 1979 Act No. 10 Section 1.

SECTION 20-3-130. Award of alimony and other allowances.

(A) In proceedings for divorce from the bonds of matrimony, and in actions for separate maintenance and support, the court may grant alimony or separate maintenance and support in such amounts and for such term as the court considers appropriate as from the circumstances of the parties and the nature of case may be just, pendente lite, and permanently. No alimony may be awarded a spouse who commits adultery before the earliest of these two events: (1) the formal signing of a written property or marital settlement agreement or (2) entry of a permanent order of separate maintenance and support or of a permanent order approving a property or marital settlement agreement between the parties.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t20c003.php

 

[FlyingRon]

Even in South Carolina, dating is not adultery. However, they do not require intercourse. Even periodic cohabitation will qualify (there's a case where a couple shared a cabin on a cruise).