Marriage is supposed to be sacred but too many people are missing the point these days. That's why we have so much divorce. The divorce rate in the US hovers above 3 per 1000 of total population. That's a million divorces every year and we have the records to prove it. As a matter of fact, they are one of the vital public records that are compulsory by law upon the respective state authorities.

All divorces start with the official filing, run the legal course and end with the final decree. Every step of the proceeding is documented and filed. Their records are uploaded to the central state repository and maintained for both public and government reference and informational purposes. This is officially done since 1967 on the back of the Freedom of Information Act, 1966 but the greater number of states already had it at county level long before that.

In many states, the central statistics or records office cannot issue certified copies of divorce documents. They will only verify whether a divorce was granted in the state and redirect requests pertaining to original documents to the court office where the divorce was granted. Examples of such records are the Divorce Decree and Divorce Certificate. They are generally obtainable free of charge above a nominal fee for the search and admin service.

The standard information contained in these free divorce records are the personal particulars of the parties involved and those of the children if any and details surrounding the event such as when and where, asset division, alimony, child custody, reason for divorce and so forth. With the exception of cases categorized as confidential or closed by court orders, these records are considered and treated as public information the nature of which can be quite private notwithstanding.

Depending on the particular government agency to which the request is submitted, free divorce records can usually be obtained by walk-in, telephone or fax. The online option over the internet is also increasingly offered by the more technology-leaning outlets. Processing time and admin fees vary from office to office and are dependent on the mode of request. Their details are normally listed with the procedures for application.

A superb alternative to government sources are the commercial record providers. This type of information resource is categorically fee-based but they are generally well worth the money. Besides having access to private and proprietary data network, the individual state-level records are consolidated onto a single database. This makes things much more convenient for users and is hugely beneficial for those searched involving multiple states.