Indiana

All states

Luck of the Draw score: 55 out of 100

Indiana presumes an equal split but puts all property, including premarital and inherited property, in the pot, and it confines maintenance to three narrow situations with a three-year limit on rehabilitative awards. Each party can take one change of judge without stating a reason. On the book’s scale, 0 is a contract you can read and 100 is one that mostly says “ask the judge.” Indiana ranks 8 of 51, counting from the state that leaves the least to the judge. How the index works, and every state’s score.

Part	Score	The rule, and where it comes from
Property	10 / 20	The court divides all property, including property owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance, and presumes an equal division of the marital property is just and reasonable unless rebutted by relevant evidence. Ind. Code §§ 31-15-7-4(a), 31-15-7-5
Alimony	15 / 20	Maintenance is limited to an incapacitated spouse, a custodian of an incapacitated child, or rehabilitative maintenance, and rehabilitative maintenance may not exceed three years from the decree. Ind. Code § 31-15-7-2
Fault	0 / 20	The only conduct factor for property division is conduct related to disposing of or dissipating property, and the maintenance statute lists no fault factor. Ind. Code §§ 31-15-7-5(4), 31-15-7-2; Macher v. Macher, 746 N.E.2d 120 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001)
Lawyers’ fees	20 / 20	The court may periodically order a party to pay a reasonable amount for the other party’s costs and attorney’s fees. Ind. Code § 31-15-10-1(a)
Second opinion	10 / 20	A change of judge is granted on an unverified motion without stating grounds, limited to one change per party in civil cases including petitions to modify a final decree. Ind. Trial Rule 76(B)-(C)

Getting in

No waiting period. Apply to the circuit court clerk in the county where either partner lives; if neither lives in Indiana, use the county of the ceremony. Each partner shows proof of age. A license expires 60 days after issue if unused. The license chapter sets no waiting period.
Ind. Code §§ 31-11-4-3, 31-11-4-6, 31-11-4-10, 33-32-5-1

Who can marry you. Clergy, judges, mayors, city or town clerks, circuit court clerks, the governor, lieutenant governor, legislators and imams may officiate, and a federal injunction adds certified secular humanist celebrants. The Friends Church, German Baptists, Bahai faith and LDS Church may solemnize under their own rules. Other couples cannot marry themselves. No statute addresses online ordination; a federal opinion noted a trial court’s view that such clergy credentials suffice.
Ind. Code §§ 31-11-6-1, 31-11-11-6; Center for Inquiry, Inc. v. Marion Circuit Court Clerk, 758 F.3d 869 (7th Cir. 2014)

Common-law marriage: Closed to new couples. A common-law marriage entered into after January 1, 1958 is void in Indiana. Indiana courts generally treat a marriage as valid if it was valid where it was formed, unless strong public policy objects. The Court of Appeals has said Indiana could recognize a common-law marriage validly formed elsewhere.
Ind. Code § 31-11-8-5; McPeek v. McCardle, 888 N.E.2d 171 (Ind. 2008); Mason v. Mason, 775 N.E.2d 706 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002)

Chapter 5 of the book covers getting in, and whether you are in at all.

The property system

Indiana is one of forty-one equitable distribution jurisdictions. Equitable distribution. Each of you owns what’s in your own name during the marriage. At a divorce a judge divides the marital property as the judge finds equitable, which is not a promise of half. Chapter 11 of the book covers what that means, and Chapter 22 covers what happens to it when you move.

What counts as marital. Indiana is an all-property state with no marital or separate category. The court divides everything either spouse owned before the marriage, acquired before final separation, or acquired jointly. Final separation is the day the divorce petition is filed, or an earlier legal separation petition. Equal division is presumed, and a spouse can rebut it with evidence such as inheritance or premarital ownership.
Ind. Code §§ 31-15-7-4(a), 31-15-7-5, 31-9-2.1-99

An inheritance that touches a joint account

A judge can reach it either way. An inheritance can be divided whether or not it touches a joint account, because the court divides all property. Its source matters only at the next step: a spouse can rebut the equal-division presumption by showing property came through inheritance or gift. The statute has no tracing or transmutation rule.
Ind. Code §§ 31-15-7-4(a), 31-15-7-5(2)

Chapter 12 explains how mine becomes ours.

Your spouse’s medical bills (Article 5)

The spouse who got the care pays first. Each spouse is primarily liable for his or her own debts; a creditor for necessaries must first seek payment from the spouse who incurred the debt, and only if those resources are insufficient may it reach the other spouse, whose liability is limited by that spouse’s ability to pay.
Bartrom v. Adjustment Bureau, Inc., 618 N.E.2d 1 (Ind. 1993), as described in Hickory Creek at Connersville v. Estate of Combs, No. 21A04-1211-ES-600 (Ind. Ct. App. June 27, 2013)

Chapter 8 of the book explains the three ways states handle this.

If one of you dies (Article 9)

A surviving spouse who elects against the will takes one-half of the testator’s net personal and real estate, but a second or later spouse who had no children with the decedent, where the decedent left children by an earlier spouse, takes one-third of the net personal estate plus 25 percent of the remaining value of the real property after liens; the share is measured against the testator’s estate, not an augmented estate.
Ind. Code § 29-1-3-1(a)

Chapter 9 covers what a will can and can’t take away from a spouse.

Prenups and postnups (Article 12)

Two looks, under UPAA (1983) as modified, Ind. Code 31-11-3. An agreement is unenforceable if signed involuntarily or unconscionable when signed (no disclosure element in the statute), and a court may order maintenance despite a waiver if the waiver causes extreme hardship under circumstances not reasonably foreseeable at signing; the Indiana Supreme Court has also said that if circumstances change during the marriage, a court may look to circumstances at dissolution to judge unconscionability.
Ind. Code § 31-11-3-8; Rider v. Rider, 669 N.E.2d 160, 163 (Ind. 1996), as quoted in Pardieck v. Pardieck (Ind. Ct. App. 1997)

What an agreement needs. A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties and needs no consideration; no notarization, witnesses, waiting period, independent counsel or disclosure element is written into the statute, and a maintenance waiver can be overridden for unforeseeable extreme hardship.
Ind. Code §§ 31-11-3-4, 31-11-3-8(b)

Chapter 29 explains one look and two, and what makes agreements stick.

Children (Article 8)

Child support: income shares. The guidelines use the Income Shares Model, giving the child the share of parental income the child would have received if the parents lived together. The duty ends at 19, continues to high school graduation on a parent’s notice, and can end from 18 if the child is out of school and self-supporting. A judge may order college support if a petition is filed by age 19.
Ind. Code §§ 31-16-6-2, 31-16-6-6; Indiana Child Support Guideline 1

Moving away with a child. A moving parent must file and serve notice at least 30 days ahead, or within 14 days of learning of the move if sooner. Moves that add 20 miles or less between the parents’ homes and keep the child’s school are exempt. If the other parent objects, the mover shows good faith and a legitimate reason; the objector then shows the move does not serve the child’s best interest.
Ind. Code §§ 31-17-2.2-1(b), 31-17-2.2-3, 31-17-2.2-5(e)-(f)

Chapter 17 covers the children.

Getting out (Article 2)

How long you must live here before filing: six months. At filing, one spouse must have lived in Indiana, or been stationed at a military installation there, for six months, and in the filing county for three months. Both periods count at the same time for someone who moves straight to one county. The rule does not depend on where the couple married or where the breakdown happened.
Ind. Code § 31-15-2-6

How long it takes. Either spouse can file for irretrievable breakdown without proving fault. The final hearing cannot happen until 60 days after filing, and the same minimum applies to agreed cases. If the judge sees a reasonable possibility of reconciliation, the judge may continue the case, and either spouse may move for the decree 45 days later.
Ind. Code §§ 31-15-2-3, 31-15-2-10, 31-15-2-13, 31-15-2-15

The legal minimum for a spouse who moves here alone and files as soon as allowed, with no minor children and the other spouse objecting, is about 240 days from arrival to a final decree (180 days of residence + 60-day wait). Courts often take longer.

Chapter 22 covers what changes when you move.

Each entry on this page comes from the statute, rule or case it cites, read in September or November 2026, except where the entry says it has not been checked. A rule can change after that, and a rule on paper can play out differently in a particular courthouse. No lawyer reviews these pages.

If you practice family law in Indiana and would like to correct or contribute to this page, write to me.

Meanwhile

• The default contract, with the options states choose among. Read it with a Indiana lawyer, or paste it into a chatbot along with “I live in Indiana” and treat what comes back as a list of questions, not answers.
• Three contracts you could sign instead.
• A worksheet for reading it together, and every state’s Luck of the Draw score.
• Corrections, including changes in the law since the book went to press.
• About the book.