Can my Spouse Refuse a Divorce in New Mexico?

Because New Mexico is a no-fault state a spouse cannot refuse to participate or give you a divorce. If they don’t actually file the paperwork, or do the things that they’re supposed to do, the court will order the divorce anyway, that’s called a default divorce. Your lawyer will know how to get one of those if that’s appropriate. Now what if your spouse slows down the process, or doesn’t cooperate once he does file with the right papers with the court? Well then your lawyer has to get creative, and come up with ways that he or she can push the process through the courts.
There are various ways to do that. One of them is to file a motion or a piece of paper, asking for your spouse to appear in court to answer to the court why they haven’t cooperated. If this type of activity continues then the court can actually hold that person in contempt, and if they’re held in contempt they can be made to do what they didn’t do, but also they might be thrown in jail. Now the final thing that can happen is that a court once in a while does order the non-obeying spouse to pay some of the other person’s attorney’s fees and I say sometimes, because while that is allowed in statute it is a little bit difficult to get in New Mexico.

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