In Minnesota a couple can be granted a divorce when the court finds that there has been an "irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship." There no longer needs to be a finding that one of the parties was abusive or committed adultery. But while the requirement for these types of fault no longer exist. Adultery and abuse still represent a significant portion of the underlying reasons for divorce in Minnesota

Since today is Valentine's Day it makes sense to talk about matter of the heart. In the realm of family law that often means that someone's heart has been broken. This may be a result of lying, hiding assets, or adultery. Increasingly evidence of these activities is archived in electronic formats such as cell phone texts or Facebook posts.

A recent survey of family law attorneys found that more than nine in ten have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cases in which evidence from cell phones is playing a role in the case. This has been the case for email for a number of years, in all types of cases emails provide valuable evidence, partially because people often send a quick email without considering the fact that it may someday show up as evidence in court.

There has been a learning curve regarding the use of emails, and many people now pause before hitting the send button to consider whether they would really like to create a written record of the information they are conveying. But this learning curve has not yet taken place for text messages. Even more informal than email, texts messages are often used to send information that one soon to be divorce spouse never expects the other spouse to see.

Source: MSNBC, "Divorce lawyers see more phone evidence, especially texts," Athima Chansanchai, Feb. 10, 2012