ANSWERS: 8
  • As a caveat, some government assistance or benefit agencies consider you "holding out" as married even though it's not a legal marriage; i.e., they may count your income and assets for the purpose of determining benefits for which you have applied.
  • Florida is not a common law state. however you do live in a state the enforces domestic laws and the fact that you live under the same roof and or have a child in common you are bound by the domestic violence laws in Florida.
  • Georgia used to have common law marriages, which were recognized as such in other states. Sometimes living together for a long term creates some limited kinds of domestic partnership presumptions (eg, California's "palimony" or a presumption that the tv set is jointly owned), but, it's Georgia, and not Florida that had the common law marriage -- and, if my memory serves me right, you have had to have co-habited prior to the 1960's for that to apply. Legal legands live on....
  • The way most couples cohabitat, they would not be legally considered as being in a common law marriage. This is what I found on the internet to support this: From "nolo.com" In a handful of states, heterosexual couples can become legally married without a license or ceremony. This type of marriage is called a common law marriage. Contrary to popular belief, a common law marriage is not created when two people simply live together for a certain number of years. In order to have a valid common law marriage, the couple must do ALL of the following: - live together for a significant period of time (not defined in any state) - hold themselves out as a married couple -- typically this means using the same last name, referring to the other as "my husband" or "my wife," and filing a joint tax return, and intend to be married. - When a common law marriage exists, the spouses receive the same legal treatment given to formally married couples, including the requirement that they go through a legal divorce to end the marriage. Common law marriage is recognized only in the following states: Alabama Colorado District of Columbia Georgia (if created before 1/1/97) Idaho (if created before 1/1/96) Iowa Kansas Montana New Hampshire (for inheritance purposes only) Ohio (if created before 10/10/91) Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Utah This info from "nolo.com" at this link: http://tinyurl.com/8gp99 From "unmarried.org" with link provided below, which appears to be more current information about each states law. "Demystifying Common Law Marriage" By Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller Most people are fuzzy on exactly what common law marriage is. Like so many others, we used to believe that if two people lived together for seven years (or some other magical number of years), clicked their heels three times, and sprinkled some fairy dust, they'd become common law spouses. That's not exactly how it works. The idea of common law marriage emerged in medieval England, because clerics and justices who officiated at marriages were not always able to travel to rural locations where some couples lived. In that case, the couple could establish a marriage "by common law." In most states in the United States** today, there's no such thing as common law marriage. No matter how many years you live together and how much fairy dust you sprinkle, you will never have a common law marriage. That's good news if you're worried about "accidentally" finding yourself married, but bad news if you wanted the perks of marriage without the paperwork. (However, even if you'll never have a common law marriage in the legal sense, this website packed with information for people like you. You might also be interested in Unmarried to Each Other: The Essential Guide to Living Together as Unmarried Couple.) In fifteen states and the District of Columbia (see below), though, common law marriages are recognized. If a man and a woman (same-sex marriages aren't recognized) live together and "intend to be married" by acting like they are married, telling people they are married, and doing the things married people do (using words like "husband" and "wife," filing joint tax returns, etc.), they become common law spouses. This gives them the same rights and responsibilities as people who got married the old-fashioned way, with a trip to City Hall and a wedding. Common law marriage isn't something to do lightly. If you become married by common law and later decide you want to end your relationship, you still have to have a standard, legal divorce. In this way, common law marriages are very similar to regular marriages: they're usually easier to get into than to get out of. There's no simple test to see if a couple qualifies as being common law married, and the only time the question usually arises is in court. If, after death or separation, one partner claims there was a common law marriage and wants the benefits of marriage, the court would consider many factors to determine if there was truly intent to be married. Since the seven-years-to-automatic-marriage idea is only a myth, determining whether a common law marriage existed can be complicated. Some lawyers recommend that couples write, sign, and date a simple statement that says they do or do not intend to be married, to offer protection should the question ever arise. If you create a common law marriage in one of the states below and later move to a state that does not recognize common law marriage, your marriage can technically still exist. All marriages, common law or otherwise, are recognized by all states, regardless of where they were created (the debate about legalizing same-sex marriage gets tricky here, since technically, a lesbian marriage created in whatever state legalizes it first should be recognized by all other states). Few of us live in places too rural to be married these days, and fairy dust is scarce. In the U.S. today, common law marriages are more common in myth than in reality. States That Recognize Common Law Marriage Alabama Colorado District of Columbia Georgia (if created before 1/97) Idaho (if created before 1/96) Iowa Kansas Montana New Hampshire (for inheritance purposes only) Ohio (if created before 10/91) Oklahoma (possibly only if created before 11/1/98. Oklahoma's laws and court decisions may be in conflict about whether common law marriages formed in that state after 11/1/98 will be recognized.) Pennsylvania (if created before 9/03) Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Utah * Standard disclaimer: the writers of this article are not lawyers. If you have questions about your legal situation, research the laws in your state or consult an attorney. ** All information in this article pertains to the United States. Common law marriage differs from country to country. In Canada, for example, what is called "common law marriage" is more common than it is in the U.S. -- about 14% of all couples are common law spouses -- but it also has different legal meanings. Some information for this article came from Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples by Attorneys Toni Ihara, Ralph Warner, and Frederick Hertz. For more information on Common Law Marriage, see our Fact Sheet. Last updated August 2005 From a site called "unmarried.org" here: http://www.unmarried.org/common-law-marriage.html
  • Sorry Common Law Marriage States "Currently, only 9 states (Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas) and the District of Columbia recognize common-law marriages contracted within their borders. In addition, five states have "grandfathered" common law marriage (Georgia, Idaho, Ohio, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania) allowing those established before a certain date to be recognized. New Hampshire recognizes common law marriage only for purposes of probate, and Utah recognizes common law marriages only if they have been validated by a court or administrative order." http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/commonlaw.htm
  • No, you are not married, you can say you are domestic partners. In the last decade of the twentieth century and continuing into the twenty-first, a number of city and county governments enacted domestic partnership laws, including Seattle, New York City, and Broward County, Florida. In 1999, California passed a state domestic partnership law that provided a number of protections that formerly had been offered only to married couples. These protections include the right to inherit from a partner's estate; the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner; the right to use sick leave to care for a partner; the right to obtain HEALTH INSURANCE through a partner; and the right to adopt a partner's child as a step-parent. Domestic partners in California may obtain these benefits by registering with the state.
  • I've heard that in most states, you are legally married after 7 years.
  • Florida law say you are not his wife. You're living with a man who keeps you as a private whore.

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