Virginia Divorce ~ Proving Adultery
Divorce cases that include adultery are never pleasant and can almost always be emotionally draining. It’s important to get the facts straight in all aspects of adultery.
If you openly catch your spouse in an affair then detectives and private eyes may not even be needed. It’s not often that a spouse comes clean about an affair and gives all the details you would need in your divorce case. A detective may help your case in court however. You will most likely need a corroborative witness, for example a mutual friend or neighbor, who has witnessed the affair and has nothing to gain by making a statement in court. A lot of adultery cases a proven by circumstantial evidence by proving that the spouse that had the affair had the opportunity and disposition to commit adultery. In order to establish adultery, you must have clear evidence that is very convincing.
A good example of convincing evidence would be public displays of affection between the guilty spouse and the paramour (the extramarital partner), such as holding hands, kissing, hugging. Those examples create evidence of an adulterous disposition. An example of an opportunity to commit adultery would be if the guilty spouse was seen at the paramour’s residence for long amounts of time. You must prove disposition and opportunity in most cases for the court to agree to adultery as grounds for divorce.
Build a good case for yourself and get all your facts together. The more information you collect and document, the better you will be prepared for your divorce.
Source : Virginia State Code