SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue

[Baker, John]

        as someone else has pointed out, the assumption that legal status is private doesn't always stand up very well.  (i can't help thinking of the scene in the pickwick papers, where the widower proposed to burn his late wife's will on the theory that it was a private matter relating only to him and his son.)  when a couple live together for a significant period of time in a state recognizing common law marriages and hold themselves out as married, the marriage is valid, even if they subsequently move to a state that does not recognize common law marriages.  your friends should consult a lawyer if they live or have lived in one of those states, which according to nolo.com are:

Alabama
Colorado
District of Columbia
Georgia (if created before 1/1/97)
Idaho (if created before 1/1/96)
Iowa
Kansas
Montana
New Hampshire (for inheritance purposes only)
Ohio (if created before 10/10/91)
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Texas
Utah


john baker

> -----Original Message-----

I know an unmarried, heterosexual couple who simply refer to each other as
"my husband" and "my wife." They figure that's their social situation and
their legal status is no one's business but their own.