A common law marriage is one in which the couple who hold themselves out as a husband and wife can be considered married despite lacking the marriage license or ceremony.
Florida stopped allowing common law marriages for actions after January 1 1968. The Florida statute concerning common law marriage is 741.211 and can be seen by clicking here
Florida does recognize common law marriages that validly occured in other states however just as it is a separate property jurisdiction but will recognize community property aquired in the 9 states that follow community property.
marriage. More particularly, a common law marriage can occur only when:
- a couple lives together in a state that recognizes common law marriages
- intending to be married.
- for a significant period of time (not defined in any state)
- holding themselves out as a married couple -- typically this means using the same last name, referring to the other as "my wife" or "my husband" and filing a joint tax return, and
- Unless all four are true, there is no common law marriage. When a common law marriage exists, the couple must go through a formal divorce to end the relationship.
Common law marriage is recognized only by the 13 states mentioned below
- Alabama
- Colorado
- District of Columbia
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Montana
- New Hampshire (for inheritance purposes only)
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Utah
The most recent publicized case of common law marriage is in the probate of Gary Coleman in Utah where his ex wife who divorced him but remained living in his home with him claimed they were common law spouses and that the will was done prior to them getting essentially remarried as a result in which case she would be a pre termitted spouse and entitled to the entire estate since he had no children.
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