Arkansas Divorce Laws: Grounds, Property, and Alimony

Arkansas divorce laws require at least 60 days of residency before either spouse can file, and no decree can be entered until one spouse has lived in the state for a full three months and at least 30 days have passed since filing.¹² Beyond timing, the case will resolve property, support, and children under specific state rules. What follows is what those rules actually say and how they play out.

Residency and How Long It Takes

Either you or your spouse must have lived in Arkansas for 60 continuous days before you file. Before the court signs a final decree, one spouse must have kept Arkansas residency for three full months, and a separate 30-day cooling-off period runs from the filing date.² Even when both spouses agree on everything, the case cannot close in less than 30 days. Contested cases run considerably longer.

Grounds for Divorce

Arkansas gives you two paths: no-fault or fault. Which one you choose affects both the timeline and how contentious the case becomes.

No-Fault Divorce

To get a no-fault divorce, you and your spouse must have lived separately and continuously apart for at least 18 months without resuming the relationship.³ Nobody has to prove wrongdoing. That 18-month separation is one of the longest in the country, so if you moved out recently and want a quick end, no-fault alone will not get you there. Many people file on fault grounds specifically to avoid the wait.

Fault Grounds

Filing on fault skips the 18-month wait, but you carry the burden of proving your spouse’s misconduct. Arkansas recognizes these fault grounds:³

Adultery after the marriage.
Impotence at the time of marriage that continues.
Conviction of a felony or other serious crime.
Habitual drunkenness for at least one year.
Cruel treatment that endangers the filing spouse’s life.
Intolerable treatment (indignities) that makes the filing spouse’s situation intolerable, even without physical danger.
Willful failure to provide basic necessities despite the ability to do so.
Incurable insanity, requiring three consecutive years of separation, institutional commitment, and medical testimony.

Proving fault means presenting evidence at a hearing, which adds time and cost. It can also influence property division and alimony in cases involving adultery or cruelty, where judges have some discretion.

Covenant Marriages Follow Different Rules

If you entered a covenant marriage, you cannot use the standard 18-month no-fault ground. The petition must specifically ask to dissolve a covenant marriage under the Covenant Marriage Act, and the available grounds are narrower.³ Talk to an attorney early if this applies to you.

Where to File

Divorce cases go through the circuit court’s domestic relations division. The filing spouse (the plaintiff) files a complaint in the county where they live.⁴ If the plaintiff lives out of state and the other spouse lives in Arkansas, the case is filed where the defendant lives. Along with the complaint, the court requires a civil cover sheet, plus a confidential information sheet in cases involving minor children.

Filing fees vary by county, generally falling somewhere around $130 to $170 and sometimes a bit higher when children are involved. After filing, the other spouse must be formally served with the papers.

Dividing Property and Debt

Arkansas presumes marital property should be split 50/50, but the court can deviate when an equal split would be unfair.⁵ Only marital property is on the table. Separate property (what you owned before the marriage, or received individually as a gift or inheritance during it) stays with the spouse who owns it.

When the court decides an equal split is not equitable, it must explain why in the order and weigh:⁵

Length of the marriage.
Age, health, and station in life of each spouse.
Current occupations and sources of income.
Vocational skills and employability, including whether one spouse left the workforce to raise children.
Each party’s assets, debts, needs, and ability to build wealth going forward.
Contributions to marital property, including homemaking and raising children.
Federal income tax consequences of the division.

Debts run up during the marriage are divided under the same framework, with the court looking at who incurred them, what for, and each spouse’s ability to pay.

Retirement Accounts

Retirement benefits earned during the marriage are marital property. Splitting them requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO), a court order that directs the plan administrator to pay a portion of one spouse’s benefits to the other. The QDRO must identify both spouses, name the specific plan, and state the amount or percentage.⁶ For pension-style plans, the receiving spouse usually cannot draw payments until the plan member retires or applies for a refund.

Taxes on Property Transfers

Federal tax law treats property transfers between spouses incident to divorce as non-taxable events. You do not recognize gain or loss on the transfer.⁷ The catch: the receiving spouse inherits the transferring spouse’s tax basis. If your spouse hands you stock they bought for $10,000 that is now worth $50,000, you take the $10,000 basis and owe tax on the $40,000 gain when you sell. Two assets with the same face value can have very different after-tax value, so a “50/50” split on paper may not be equal in your pocket.

Alimony

Alimony is not automatic. The court has broad discretion to decide whether to award support, how much, and for how long, based on what is “reasonable from the circumstances of the parties and the nature of the case.”⁸ In practice, judges weigh income, earning capacity, health, age, length of the marriage, and the standard of living during the marriage.

Three forms are awarded:

Temporary alimony, paid while the case is pending and ending at the final decree.
Rehabilitative alimony, the most common type, providing support for a set period while the recipient gets training, education, or work experience to become self-supporting.
Permanent alimony, reserved for situations where a spouse has limited prospects of becoming self-supporting, often after a long marriage. Despite the name, it does not always last forever.

A judge can combine types, such as two years of rehabilitative alimony followed by a smaller permanent amount.

Unless the decree says otherwise, alimony automatically ends on whichever of these happens first: the recipient remarries, the recipient begins living full-time with a new partner in an intimate cohabiting relationship, either spouse dies, or the recipient has a child from a new relationship that produces a support order.⁸ Either spouse can also ask the court to modify or end alimony based on a significant change in circumstances. If rehabilitative alimony was ordered and the recipient does not follow through on the plan, the paying spouse can ask the court to revisit the order.

Child Custody

Every custody decision turns on the best interest of the child, and the court does not favor either parent based on gender.⁹ Arkansas distinguishes legal custody (decision-making authority on education, healthcare, and similar issues) from physical custody (where the child lives day to day).

Arkansas law creates a rebuttable presumption that joint custody is in the child’s best interest.⁹ Joint custody means roughly equal parenting time and shared decision-making. “Rebuttable” means the court starts there, but a parent can overcome the presumption with evidence that joint custody would actually harm the child. A history of domestic abuse, evidence that one parent cannot cooperate in shared parenting, or a case where neither parent asks for joint custody can defeat it.

When the court orders sole custody, the other parent typically gets a visitation schedule. Supervised visitation may be ordered where safety is a concern.

Child Support

Arkansas uses the Income Shares Model. The court adds both parents’ gross monthly income together, consults a family support chart to find the total obligation for that number of children, and then each parent pays their proportional share.¹⁰ The minimum child support order is $125 per month, even for very low-income parents.

Three categories get added on top of the base amount: health insurance premiums, extraordinary medical expenses, and childcare costs.¹¹ The court can order one or both parents to carry the child’s health insurance, as long as the cost of dependent coverage does not exceed 5% of that parent’s gross income. Only the actual out-of-pocket cost of adding the child counts, not the full premium. Extraordinary medical expenses (orthodontics, physical therapy, chronic conditions, mental health treatment) get folded into the worksheet and divided proportionally.

Changing an Order After the Divorce

A decree is not necessarily permanent. Arkansas allows modification when circumstances shift enough to justify it.

For child support, a change of 20% or more in either parent’s gross income qualifies as a material change of circumstances that lets you petition for modification.¹² A change in a parent’s ability to provide health insurance can also justify modification.

For alimony, either spouse can petition for review or modification any time there has been a significant and material change of circumstances, such as job loss, a major health event, or a substantial income change.⁸ The bar is intentionally high to prevent constant relitigation.

When an ex ignores a court order (support, property, custody schedule), Arkansas courts can enforce compliance through contempt proceedings, wage garnishment, or seizure of property.¹³ Contempt can carry fines or jail time. You file the motion with the same court that issued the original order.

Getting Your Former Name Back

If you changed your name when you married and want it restored, ask for that in the divorce itself. The court can restore either party to the name used before the marriage as part of the final decree.¹⁴ Doing it now is much simpler than a separate name-change proceeding later, so include the request in your complaint or raise it before the decree is signed.

1
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-307 – Matters That Must Be Proved – Definition
2
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-310 – Waiting Period Before Rendition of Decree
3
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-301 – Grounds for Divorce
4
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-303 – Venue – Service of Process
5
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-315 – Division of Property – Definition
6
Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Divorce / QDRO FAQ
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 504 (2025), Divorced or Separated Individuals
8
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-312 – Alimony – Child Support – Bond – Method of Payment – Definition
9
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-13-101 – Award of Custody – Definition
10
Justia. Arkansas Code Title 9 – Appendix Administrative Order Number 10 – Child Support Guidelines – Section V. Computation of Child Support
11
Justia. Arkansas Code Section IV – Health Insurance, Extraordinary Medical Expenses, and Childcare Costs
12
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-14-107 – Change in Income Warranting Modification – Definition
13
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-313 – Enforcement of Separation Agreements and Decrees of Court
14
Justia. Arkansas Code 9-12-318 – Restoration of Name