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The Accidental Marriage
I was a little bored over the weekend, I did some digging around about common law marriage in different states. I assumed that most states still had common 
law marriage because I hear people talk about it pretty often but in reality only 11 states recognize it and 5 others recognize it under date restrictions. For example, if you meet the criteria before October 10 1991 in Ohio, you can be married. But what if you don’t want to be married, even just under common law? In Texas you need to mind your P’s and Q’s when you live with someone because it’s SUPER easy to inadvertently marry your live-in lover!
Ok, I kid about accidentally marrying your partner, but it is pretty easy to say your married in the Lonestar State. There is a three part test.
1. You must live with your partner in the state.
2. You must have “held yourself out” to be married. For example, if you were at a part and you introduced your mate as your spouse, filed a tax return. I wonder if you used your spouse as an excuse to get out of something if that counts…
3. You must DECLARE you are married and the other party must agree. I have this picture in my head of two people looking at one another and one says to the other “Let’s me be married - kthxbai“.
There is no time limit on this, so people could meet and be married in a matter of days. Hours or even minutes if the other person is homeless and hasn’t much stuff! Again, I kid because if the common law marriage exists for less than two years, either party can file that it never existed if no children or joint debts. Otherwise you get to take the wonderful ride that is divorce.
Honestly, I think common law marriage is a cop-out and in Texas you can be completely lazy and still be “married”. Is it really that hard to go to the court house, wait a couple days and then see a judge? Hell, you can skip the judge all together and get ordained over the internet. Besides parenthood, marriage is the single biggest commitment you’ll make and if you take less time to decide on getting married than you do on what flat screen TV you’ll buy, there’s a big problem.
Technorati Tags: common law marriage, legally married, common law texas, kthxbai
I also believe that common-law marriages are a cop-out. Some people want the benefits of marriage, but they also want an easy “out.” This way, they don’t have to work out their problems, or answer to anyone.