What are the grounds for divorce in Trinidad and Tobago?

The five facts

You must prove one of these facts (Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act (Chapter 45:51), ss 3, 4(1)). Each period must be continuous and run up to the filing of the petition.

1. Adultery, and you find it intolerable to live with your spouse. You cannot rely on it if you lived together for more than 6 months in total after learning of it (s 8(3)).
2. Behaviour such that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with your spouse. The test is whether a right-thinking person, knowing all the circumstances and both spouses' characters, would reach that conclusion (Livingstone-Stallard v Livingstone-Stallard). If you go on living together for more than 6 months in total after the last incident you rely on, the court can take that into account; up to 6 months is ignored (s 8(4)).
3. Desertion for at least 2 years.
4. 2 years' separation, with your spouse's consent to the divorce. If your spouse withdraws consent and this is the only fact relied on, the case is stayed (Family Proceedings Rules 1998, r 10.5). If you misled your spouse about something they relied on in consenting, the court can set the decree nisi aside on their application (s 10).
5. 5 years' separation. No consent is needed.

Counting the time apart

Living apart means not living together in the same household (s 4(5)). Living together again for up to 6 months in total does not break the continuity of desertion or separation, but that time does not count towards the 2 or 5 years (s 8(5)). A couple who separated on 1 March 2023 and lived together again for 3 months in 2024 reach 2 years' separation on 1 June 2025. If the periods together add up to more than 6 months, continuity is broken, and the 2 or 5 years must be counted again from a later separation.

The first year of marriage

No divorce petition can be filed within 1 year of the marriage (s 5(1)). A judge may allow an earlier petition only for exceptional hardship suffered by you or exceptional depravity by your spouse, having regard to the interests of any child of the family and the chance of reconciliation within the year (s 5(2)). After the year, you can rely on events that happened within it (s 5(3)). The bar does not apply to judicial separation (ss 5(1), 15(1)).

Two different protections in separation cases

• Grave hardship, in 5-year cases only. Where 5 years' separation is the only fact available, your spouse can oppose the decree on the ground that divorce would cause grave financial or other hardship and be wrong in all the circumstances. If the court agrees, it can refuse the divorce (s 9).
• Financial provision, in 2-year and 5-year cases. Where separation is the only fact relied on, your spouse can ask the court to consider his or her financial position after the divorce. The court then normally cannot make the decree absolute unless satisfied that you need make no provision, or that your provision is reasonable and fair or the best that can be made (s 11). This delays the final decree but does not defeat the divorce.

Jurisdiction and religious marriages

Either spouse must be domiciled in Trinidad and Tobago when the petition is filed, or have been habitually resident here throughout the year before (s 2A(2)).

Apart from the Muslim council procedure described below, a marriage can be dissolved in Trinidad and Tobago only by the High Court. Since July 2021 all divorces have been heard in its Family Court (Family and Children Division Act 2016, ss 4, 9(1)).

A marriage between Muslims can also be dissolved by a council of three divorce officers, but only if the spouse applying belongs to one of the three Muslim bodies named in the regulations: the Trinidad Muslim League, the Anjuman Sunnat-Ul-Jamaat Association of Trinidad and the Tackveeyatul Islamic Association of Trinidad. The council decides under Islamic law (Muslim Marriage and Divorce Regulations, regs 4, 5, 9). It first pronounces a decree nisi, to be made absolute within a period of 3 to 9 months, and either spouse can then apply for the decree absolute (reg 10; Divorce (Procedure and Practice) Rules, r 21). The divorce is valid only from its registration with the Registrar General of Muslim Marriages and Divorces, which cannot take place more than 1 month after the decree absolute (Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (Chapter 45:02), ss 16, 21). A talaq or other religious divorce pronounced here without a council decree and registration does not end the marriage in law (Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, s 16). Muslim spouses may petition the Family Court instead.