Only one person (either husband or wife, but not both) should need to agree to a divorce in order for them to qualify for a legal divorce.

The only things that should be made public in divorce records are full names (maiden name for ex-wives) of marriage partners, their ages, nationality or ethnic decent, political jurisdiction(s) in which both marriage and divorce occurred, last county or city of residence prior to divorce, date of marriage, length of marriage, number of marriage (1st, 2nd, etc.), number of children brought into the marriage and the number of children produced during marriage, the number of children (minors) and their ages at the time of the divorce, and a general reason or reasons for the divorce. Religious affiliation, education levels, occupation, and perhaps income levels should also be gathered.

These reasons for the divorce don’t have to be detailed, but they do need to be specific enough in order to fit into perhaps around 10 or 15 categories of the most common reasons for divorce. At a minimum, each person in the marriage needs to choose one or more categories that he/she identifies as causes for the divorce. (If more than one category is chosen, each category should be ranked.)

Among the categories should be one that allows a person the option to indicate that he/she is not a willing participant to the divorce and that he/she is willing to resolve whatever problems exist through counseling or other forms of help or personal effort. Another category should also provide the option to indicate whether he/she was forced to marry against their will.

The gathering of all these bits of information would provide a larger base of raw data which researchers could use to gather more information about and address the causes of divorce in society.