States Allowing Common Law Marriage
What is Common Law Marriage?
Common law marriage is a legal, matrimonial institution allowing a couple to be considered as legally married; in the case of a common law marriage, couples are neither required to participate in wedding ceremonies nor obtain certifications of marriage. The legality surrounding a common law marriage is neither uniform nor unconditionally-recognized within the United States of America.
What is Common Law?
Common Law Court systems are considered to be heavily reliant on past judicial decision and sentencing in lieu of stipulations and legal tenets expressed in the textual incarnation of the law. Common Law is considered to rely more heavily – if not completely – on the legal statutes and stipulations inherent to Case Law, which is a legal field within which past sentencing and review are employed as legal guidelines for sentencing. With regard to Common Law Marriage, the stipulations for review of the validity of a prospective marriage are typically expressed through the review of past legal cases.
Common Law Marriage in the United States
As of March 2011 within the United States, there exist sixteen states that recognize a common law marriage as a legal and recognizable matrimonial institution; this recognition of common law marriage does not carry over to other States that do not recognize common law marriages. Despite the ‘Full Faith and Credit Clause’ existing within the Constitution of the United States – in Article IV, Section 1 – which mandates the requirement of States to recognize legal finding rendered by other State judiciaries, individual States are not required to recognize a Common Law Marriage as a legal institution.
The following 12 States enact Common Law Marriage:
Alabama
Colorado
Washington DC
Iowa
Kansas
Montana
Oklahoma
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Within the following 5 States that do not enact the process of common law marriage, supplementary stipulations specific to each State’s legislation exist:
Georgia
The common law marriage is recognized in the event that it was filed prior to January 1st, 1997
Idaho
The common law marriage is recognized in the event that it was filed prior to January 1st, 1996
New Hampshire
The common law marriage is recognized in the event that it was filed for inheritance purposes
Ohio
The common law marriage is recognized in the event that it was filed prior to October 10th, 1991
Pennsylvania
The common law marriage is recognized in the event that it was filed before January 1st, 2005
Filing for Common Law Marriage
The following stipulations are necessary in order for a couple to be eligible for a Common Law Marriage, requiring the couple(s) in question to:
Present themselves as a married couple
Conduct themselves as a married couple, which consists of the sharing of residence
Claim one another as a spouse on all applicable documents, applications, and forms
Identify themselves as ‘married’ on all applicable documents, applications, and forms
Share a residence for a substantial period of time
Conduct themselves in the scope of marriage with the expectation that the marriage is a permanent and longstanding institution
