A Common Law Marriage… But Wait!

It’s Not Common Law Marriage

Question: Not every state recognizes common law marriage. Utah has a law allowing
recognition of a “marriage not solemnized.”What requirements must a couple fulfill to use this
option? If they DO establish a marriage in this way, what must they do to END the marriage?
(You might need to ask around or do some research.) What do you see as the pros and cons of
entering into a common law marriage? You might want to consider this information from the
Utah state courts’ website:

Response: Utah does recognize a “marriage not solemnized” but it isn’t called a “common law
marriage”; although that’s exactly what is it without it being under the same title, silly Utah laws.
The textbook presents us with common law marriage as, “a couple who “lived as husband and
wife and presented themselves as married” was considered married.” (Strong, B, & Cohen, T. F.
(2017). The marriage and family experience: Intimate relationships in a changing society (13th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.). This didn’t come as a huge surprise to me, but only the
concept of the three rules around the court recognizing the marriage. The requirements are;
cohabitation (for any length of time), attend matters like a married couple (ie pta meetings,
social functions) and you have to present each other as a married couple to other people. If the
couple establish that they are married through these laws, they will then not just “break up” they
will have to file for a legalized divorce through the courts, just like the traditional married couple.
Honestly, outside of tax benefits and the personal beliefs around marriage, I don’t see a very
solid reason for a common law marriage. Currently, I am in a relationship that could be
legalized under these common laws and that scares me. Because when we break up its not just
a typical break up, there’s that year window where he could take documents to the court for it to
be legitimized and then file for divorce. I’m not trying to be negative, but I couldn’t find any
positive benefits that could sway my opinion and make me want to run out and get my
relationship changed to a marriage. According to the textbook there are more benefits to a
common law marriage beside just tax benefits including; insurance, sick leave, death benefits,
life insurance, parental leave, tuition benefits, housing rights, ect. These benefits of marriage
also include ability to make medical decisions if your partner is injured/incompacitated,
automatically inherit your partners property if they die, unemployment benefits, live in
neighborhoods zoned “family only”, and obtain residency status for noncitizen partner. Those
were some of the benefits I hadn’t even considered, but I am not using currently either, so again
nothing is swaying me. One thing I found interesting is that only eight states (including Utah)
and the District of Columbia have some sort of common law marriage. I did like that the
textbook taught me that the choice between choosing a domestic partnership is different
between heterosexual couples and same-sex couples choice is very different. With hetero
couples, they have chosen have domestic relationships in place of a marriage. Where as with
same-sex couples they have had no choice for marriage until recently.

Reference
Strong, B., & Cohen, T. F. (2017). The marriage and family experience: Intimate relationships in
a changing society (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.