As long as people show an interest in the personal lives of celebrities, we'll probably never stop hearing about their marriages and divorces. From Ashton and Demi to your favorite Kardashian, the unions and breakups seem to be in constant rotation. One of the latest announcements doesn't involve a divorce, but a dissolution. Singer k.d. lang and her longtime partner filed a dissolution of domestic partnership at the end of last month.

What is a dissolution, and who qualifies for one? Although lang and her partner are a same-sex couple, married heterosexual partners can also file for dissolution as an alternative to divorce. In Ohio, divorce requires one spouse to allege the other is at fault under one of the statutory grounds, such as adultery, willful absence for more than one year, extreme cruelty, habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty or fraudulent contract. Dissolution is a good option when there are no legal grounds for the split. It's often considered a form of no-fault divorce.

Couples who choose to dissolve their marriage can avoid a lot of the expenses associated with divorce if they can come to agreement on all the issues normally hashed out in a divorce. Parental rights, visitation, child support, alimony, division of property and payment of attorney fees must all be settled between the spouses. And because there's no subpoena power, they must be willing to trade information.

Once agreement is reached on all of a couple's issues, they file their dissolution with the court and a hearing must take place in 30 to 90 days. Both members of the couple must appear and testify they've made full disclosure of all assets and liabilities, are satisfied with the agreement and approve of the dissolution. The court must also give its approval. With that, the marriage is terminated.

Dissolution is a good option for couples who want to legally split without fault, can agree on the terms of that split, and want to save money on attorney fees (often dissolution can be handled with just one lawyer). If you think it might be right for you, contact an attorney with a focus on family law.

Source: OhioBar.org, "Divorce and Dissolution: What's the Difference?" Sept. 7, 2011