Common Law Marriage vs Ceremonial Marriage

View Quoted Comment Sorry didnt see this response before my other one.

It probably has to do with the bureaucracy and control more than anything else I would guess... but I'd have to do more research.

View Quoted Comment NC, where I live, also does not recognize common law marriage.

View Quoted Comment I didn't brush off what you said. I took a minute to read the article and respond more fully.

View Quoted Comment No worries.

I'm not sure why either but I'll look into it. Thanks for engaging me in this discussion and pushing my understanding of this topic 😄

View Quoted Comment Wow, do you know why?

View Quoted Comment I don’t know the actual reason, but if I had to guess, it’s because we are in the Bible Belt and they don’t want anyone cohabiting receiving benefits without being legally married. Pretty ridiculous.

View Quoted Comment That sounds plausible.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, its funny cause my friends used to say we'd be eligible for common law marriage (we were together 10 years when we married living together for 6) but Maryland doesnt recognize it lol. DC next door does though.

"Common law married" is way more complicated than you suggest. First off, it's only available in a few states (although if you get common law married in those states and then move elsewhere, other states will recognize you as married). In those that allow it, typically the requirements are:

(1) holding themselves out as husband and wife;

(2) consenting to the marriage;

(3) cohabitation; and

(4) having the reputation in the community as being married.

So you don't end up accidentally common law married by just living together for any particular length of time. Indeed, there is a whole line of cases which say, in dry legal language, that "I'll marry you in the morning" is not enough to establish that you are married; you actually have to agree that you are married right now.

If the couple is in fact common law married, it is just as binding as any other marriage. There is no such thing as a common law divorce, so couples who married by common law have to get a legal divorce if they want to split up. Also, because they are already married, they typically cannot have a ceremonial marriage, even to each other.

So, if a couple has a common law marriage, of course I would recognize them as married. But that doesn't apply to couples who are merely living together.

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The reason fewer states are recognizing it is because it is an administrative mess. For example, a spouse is entitled to a survivor benefit from an employee's pension plan. The pension plan doesn't want to pay to the wrong person, so they will ask for a marriage certificate to prove that the person is in fact the spouse. But if it's a common law spouse, there is no marriage certificate, so getting proof is a lot harder. The employee being dead at the time, they aren't able to testify to whether they actually consented to the marriage. And reputation in the community? Kind of hard to get all the neighbors in there to say whether they thought the couple was married (even leaving aside the fact that some neighbors may not have known, and thought it was none of their business).

And you've got similar issues in any situation in which someone's marital status is at issue. Spouses have inheritance rights in the absence of a will (and often, a right to a certain amount of property regardless of the will). Spouses have rights to property in a divorce. Spouses have certain protections in bankruptcy. Spouses are the ones consulted if someone is unable to make health care decisions for themselves, and there is no health care power of attorney. A citizen spouse can sponsor their noncitizen spouse for immigration. Spouses can file joint tax returns. I could go on and on. (Having been denied the right to marry for the first eight years we were together, I got to know all the rights we couldn't have back then!) In all these situations, getting proof that the person is in fact the spouse is a mess when there is a common law marriage.

Common law marriage was important back in the days of the Wild West, when there might be no preacher in the area and getting to a city where there was one could be a challenge. It was basically intended to give people some way to get married in that situation. But these days, there isn't the same need.

View Quoted Comment That's so weird.

View Quoted Comment Thank you for adding clarity to this topic.

If couple's have to do all of that to be seen as "common law married" then why not just have a "ceremonial marriage"? You don't have to have a big fancy wedding wither way. And aren't there more benefits in being ceremonially married?

View Quoted Comment Oh, I see. Thank you for sharing!

View Quoted Comment No idea. I can't ever find the rational, but it was abolished in 2005. PA recognizes common law of anyone prior to that, but not post. In addition, PA has allowed retro gay common law marriages.

http://www.epgn.com/news/local/9220-pa-judge-issues-historic-common-law-marriage-ruling

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2d Bride has a really great rationale for why many states no longer acknowledge common law marriage.

Maryland doesn't have one either, I wonder how many states do

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It's quite uncommon now. Historically, it's mostly been in rural areas, with people who are poor enough so they don't have transportation to get to the "big city." Or who don't even have enough money for a marriage license and a courthouse wedding.

The benefits of common law and ceremonial marriage are identical. It's just harder to prove if it's common law.

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Good question.

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Wow, you learn something new everyday.