Indiana does not track divorce rate; senator proposes changes

--From Associated Press reports\nFORT WAYNE -- No one really knows what Indiana's divorce rate is, even though activists and officials sometimes cite it as proof that the institution of marriage is in need of protection.\nIndiana is one of five states that doesn't track divorce statistics, The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported Sunday. The other states are California, Georgia, Hawaii and Louisiana.\nNot knowing the divorce rate, however, doesn't stop lobbyists from pushing the state to take steps to lower it. Rep. Robert Kuzman, D-Crown Point, said several covenant marriage bills have been filed over the years with the purpose of reducing divorce.\n"They are presenting arguments on why we should do this, but we don't have the statistics to back it up," Kuzman said.\nIndiana House Speaker Brian Bosma noted that a 50 percent divorce rate is often cited in testimony on bills before the General Assembly.\n"It certainly seems to me that it's a statistic we ought to track," he said.\nThe Legislative Services Agency, however, has been unable to find divorce rates per 1,000 members of the state's population, the Journal Gazette reported.\nPart of the problem might stem from how court records are kept, said Tom Carusillo, director of trial court services for the Division of State Court Administration. In Indiana, divorce cases are filed in county courthouses under the category of domestic relations but are not always tracked specifically.\nAllen County's court computer system does. It recorded 1,675 filings for "dissolution of marriage" -- as divorce is officially termed in Indiana -- last year.\n"You always hear 50 percent or 40 percent, but before you just throw those figures out you'd like to know with more certainty that they are correct," said Allen Circuit Judge Tom Felts.\nSen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, has authored several bills aimed at changing the state's no-fault divorce law because, he said, he was told Indiana had the second- or third-highest divorce rate in the nation.\nHe said he will propose legislation to require the state to track divorces.\n"I think we ought to know how many marriages fail in our state so we can take action to try to correct it and see if it's getting worse or better," he said.