ALBANY -Breaking up wouldn’t be quite so hard to do under a “no-fault” divorce proposal being promoted by the New York State Bar Association.

Under the proposed change in family law, people suing for divorce would no longer have to allege wrongdoing by their spouse – such as adultery or “cruel and inhuman treatment” – to dissolve their marriages in New York State.

Instead, the partner who wants out would merely have to convince a judge the relationship is “irretrievably broken.”

The proposal would also loosen the rules for an amicable split, allowing a couple to divorce after living apart for one year – without the court-approved separation agreement that is currently required.

The Bar Association, representing 70,000 attorneys across the state, approved draft legislation to effect the change earlier this summer. The group is recruiting members of the Senate and Assembly to sponsor the bill in preparation for a lobbying campaign next year.

As with previous similar proposals, the bill is likely to face stiff opposition from groups such as the National Organization for Women and the state’s Roman Catholic bishops.

Proponents of no-fault divorce say New York’s present law, which they describe as the most restrictive in the nation, often makes the end of a marriage more painful than it needs to be – both for the unhappy couple and their children.

Unless both parties agree to the split, or one has been in prison for at least three years, the spouse seeking a divorce must accuse the other of adultery, “cruel and inhuman treatment,” or abandonment. Publicly proving such allegations to a judge – or, in some cases, to a jury – is not only humiliating, but expensive and time-consuming.

“What you have is people writing down all of the nasty things that have occurred during the marriage, and you have the possibility of trials involving the airing of these matters,” said a Manhattan attorney who helped draft the legislation, Harold Mayerson. “In the opinion of matrimonial lawyers, this is not good for litigants, for the court system, and especially for children.”

The process encourages clients to exaggerate the problems in their marriages, and can be unpredictable, divorce lawyers said. Judges and juries sometimes determine – after a costly and wrenching legal proceeding – that there are no legal grounds for a divorce.

“I’m doing this 30 years, and I can tell you that today just as 30 years ago I can’t predict what a jury is going to do in those cases,” said the legislative chairman of the Bar Association’s family law section, Alton Abramowitz.

“In some of these situations, you’re trapping people in a dead marriage – which frankly is not in anyone’s best interest,” said the chair of the family law section, Vincent Stempel of Garden City.

Mr. Mayerson estimated that a no-fault divorce law would save his clients involved in contested divorces between $2,500 and $10,000 in legal fees.

“It’s one of the rare times someone can say these are lawyers standing up for principle, ” Mr. Mayerson said.

A spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, Dennis Poust, said the church has opposed similar proposals to streamline the divorce process, and would likely do so again.

“Our view of marriage is that it’s a permanent contract, ideally, and should not be dissolved without time for reflection,” Mr. Poust said.

The president of the New York State chapter of NOW, Kathryn Lake Mazierski, argued that no-fault divorce would make it too easy for recalcitrant or abusive husbands to abandon their wives and children. Being able to withhold approval for a divorce gives women leverage when bargaining for alimony, child support, and custody rights, she said.

“They might as well come out and say it’s a no-responsibility divorce,” Ms. Mazierski said. “We think it’s been a disaster in other states.”

Mr. Stempel argued that the current law works to the disadvantage of women just as often as it does for men. “The problem is gender-neutral.”

He and other proponents of no-fault divorce pointed a 2003 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that suicide rates among women, and domestic violence among both sexes, declines significantly in states that allow unilateral divorces.

Mr. Mayerson pointed out that no divorce becomes final – even under the proposed no-fault system – until the couple or the court has resolved all issues relating to finances and custody of the children.”

“Nobody likes trying fault cases,” he said. “It’s like rolling craps.”