Quote:
Originally Posted by Drolefille
Indeed but from here Wiki
Intent to be married, considering each other husband and wife, mutual agreement to the marriage, and/or representing yourself as husband and wife to others are in every set of standards.
So you do have to intend to be married/to show you're married in each state. |
Wikipedia is a bad place to be doing legal research -- just FYI
Also, burden of proof is something I don't think Wiki talks about. It probably varies from state to state as well. This is no small matter because the difference between "by a preponderance of the evidence" and "by clear and convincing evidence" is vast. In Oklahoma, it is the later. I'm not sure what it is anywhere else. Also, keep in mind that none of those factors is individually dispositive. While you might have some proof to all of them, you still may fail to meet your evidentiary burden.
To date, I've helped prepare three common law marriage cases. To date, I've never seen a common law marriage proved.
While things might be clear now, imagine how unclear things might become when there are hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets/debt to allocate. Memories become very hazy and can often lead parties to attempt to mislead the court at this point. You can begin to see how difficult it can be to prove the existence of all of these things by clear and convincing evidence.
-- but then, the burden might be different from state to state.
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