Oftentimes people choose to pursue a legal separation because there’s some uncertainty about whether or not the marriage is irretrievably broken but at the same time there needs to be some structure to the relationship while the parties are separated, for example, because of the uncertainty of custody and parenting time schedules or perhaps of the uncertainty of what the parties’ respective financial obligations may be. Other times there are concerns about, for example, certain religious objections to the concept of divorce. People have a very strong perspective on the sacredness of the marriage vows and cannot pursue a divorce without feeling they’re violating that deeply held belief, and for those reasons legal separation can be an alternative.