Legal Question in Family Law in Alabama

The first issue is: Will you in fact qualify as "common law?" Alabama law has no documentary requirements for recognizing a common law marriage. Nor does our State recognize a prescribed period of time for a co-habitation to be considered a common law marriage. Our legal standard for recognizing a common law marriage is a simple question of whether the couple "held themselves out as husband and wife." This comes down to a factual question in each situation. A few of the common areas to review in answering this question are: Did the couple introduce themselves as married, i.e., "This is my husband, John Smith," did the couple have a common checking account and common household bills, did they celebrate or recognize some sort of "anniversary date," and of course the biggest one, how did they file tax returns....married or single. But really there is no one fact test. When determining this issue, the judge or jury must look to the totality of the facts related to the relationship. If you are not common law then any claims for "marital assets" will be impossible to secure through a divorce proceeding.

If you do think you will qualify as common law, then your rights to claim all or some of the marital assets, i.e., equity in the house, must be worked out via a divorce agreement or divorce litigation. To fully understand the extent of your rights to marital assets, as well as liabilities for marital debts, you should consult with an exprerienced domestic relations attorney in your area. I am not a divorce lawyer but would suggest using the Law Guru site or AVVO.com site to locate a domestic realtions/divorce lawyer in your area. Good luck and I hope this was helpful.