Alienation of affection and criminal conversation are potential legal claims or causes of action against a person who committed adultery with your spouse—the paramour or lover with whom your spouse had an affair. These claims are based on the idea that the person with whom your spouse cheated destroyed or alienated the love and affection in your marriage.

Alienation of affection claims are no longer recognized by courts in most states—but Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah do recognize such claims. And in some states that do or do not not recognize such claims, the cheated-on spouse may seek an unequal division of the marital estate based on fault in the breakup of the marriage.

The details of alienation of affection laws (sometimes called heart-balm laws) vary from state to state among the states that do recognize such claims.

In Massachusetts, claims for alienation of affection and criminal conversation are not recognized by the courts. These types of lawsuits, which historically allowed a spouse to sue a third party for interfering with the marital relationship, have been abolished in Massachusetts. This means that a spouse cannot legally pursue damages from a person their spouse had an affair with on the grounds of alienation of affection or criminal conversation. However, when it comes to the division of marital property in a divorce, Massachusetts follows an equitable distribution approach. While adultery may not be a standalone cause for a lawsuit, it can be considered as a factor in the divorce proceedings. The courts may take into account any fault, including adultery, when determining how to divide the marital estate fairly, though this does not guarantee an unequal division.