Does Social Security recognize common law or do you have to be legally married? My potential life partner is currently on disability collecting Social Security in a neighboring state. If the spousal ...

Smiling woman hugging her partner on the couch from behind in the living room. Should you live with a partner you’re not married to? One aspect to consider is the fact that some states may consider ...

Do you assume common law marriage exists everywhere? At some point growing up I "learned" that any couple who lives together for seven years automatically becomes a common law marriage, and never ...

Common law marriage is more than someone living together, and the dissolution of that life together requires a divorce proceeding, not just saying “goodbye.” That is a matter that most people don’t ...

In states that recognize common law marriages, you must meet a few requirements to gain marital status, but even these vary by state. Some of the requirements: You must live together for an amount of ...

Did you assume common law marriage existed in every state? I did. I feel like it was one of those bits of information that floated around as simply a given that if you lived with someone for seven ...

Normally, when I write about case law, it is a divorce or family law case. Today, of all things, a tax court case caught my attention as it dealt with the issue of whether New Jersey recognizes common ...

Rep. Frank Bruneel stood before a House committee in February 1995 to introduce legislation that, in addition to eliminating common-law marriages, added that marriage was only between a man and a ...