Ask us about Bed and Board Divorce for marriage between a man and a woman. You can’t remarry after the final judgment, but you may be able to remain on your spouses health insurance policy even while living completely separate lives. It must be by agreement only–no Judge can order it without consent of both parties. For many people nowadays that is the make-or-brake factor in answer to that age old question as memorialized in that song by The Clash, if in a bad marriage, “Should I stay or should I go?” For more details look at N.J.S.A. 2A:34-3. The best part of this arrangement is that you can convert it to a full divorce at any time, with the right to remarry, without asking permission of your former spouse.
Here is the slightly confusing language from the statute itself:
Divorce from bed and board may be adjudged for the same causes as divorce from the bonds of matrimony whenever both parties petition or join in requesting such relief and they or either of them present sufficient proof of such cause or causes to warrant the entry of a judgment of divorce from the bonds of matrimony, provided further that in the case of a reconciliation thereafter the parties may apply for a revocation or suspension of the judgment, and provided further that the granting of a bed and board divorce shall in no way prejudice either party from thereafter applying to the court for a conversion of said divorce to a divorce from the bonds of matrimony, which application shall be granted as a matter of right.