Karp & Iancu, S.C.

A legal separation, like divorce, is a court-ordered agreement in which a married couple lives separate lives-however, with legal separation, that marriage hasn't legally ended. Learn the details of legal separation in Wisconsin below.

Legal separations are rare. They used to be invoked because it would keep the marital bond intact for purposes of, for example, continuing a separated spouse's health insurance through the other spouse. However, insurance companies are wise to this and now commonly refuse to continue benefits for a legally separated spouse.

Aside from the rare continuation of health insurance benefits, the other most common reason parties choose a legal separation instead of divorce is due to personal or religious reasons. If parties belong to a religion that prohibits divorce, or if they are attempting to honor a personal tenet to never get divorced, parties will sometimes choose "legal separation" as a work-around because it has the legal effect of a divorce, but the semantic distinction of not actually being a "divorce.

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