Legal Question in Family Law in Colorado

Re: Common Law Documentation

Common law marriage is a grey area of the law. Courts usually consider the sort of indicators you mention: affidavits of marriage, filing taxes together, putting one or the other of you on the other's health insurance plan, telling people you are married, living together, etc. Every case is fact specific. There is no registry anywhere of Colorado common law marriages--the issue is decided case by case only when one of the putative spouses claims a marriage exists. If I were representing your girlfriend and you hit the lottery, for example, I would likely argue that you are common law married even if you are already "married" to someone else. Your girlfriend/"wife" might be interested in claiming you are married, based on the ski resort affidavit, and that your lottery winnings are marital property, to which she is entitled to half. A ski resort affidavit is pretty thin evidence, but then, lottery winnings might be enough motivation to see how far the case might fly. Were the court to find that you were common law married, any subsequent marriages would be voided. Another possibility is that she is injured in an accident and asks the court to order your to support her as her "husband".

The safest course would be to get divorced in the first "marriage"; however, you would need to determine whether you believe your girlfriend would ever make an issue of it. That, of course, might depend on future events.

We offer a 45-minute consultation for $150 during which we can discuss your case in more detail. If that would be helpful, please contact Katie at [email protected] or (303) 299-9484. I hope we can be of service.