Legal Question in Family Law in Colorado

Colorado Common Law

I hope an attorney from Colorado answers this. I am answering because it might be essential you get some immediate legal advice.

If you are writing to determine whether you should enter a common law relationship, it's not a great idea. Ohio recognized common law unions for many years finally abolishing it about 10 years ago. Colorado may or may not have done the same if they ever recognized it to begin with.

A real big problem is what happens when the union dissoves. Divorces are messy affairs in the best of circumstances. Can you imagine the confusion of trying to determine in a courtroom whether two people cohabited and demonstrated some "indicia" of marriage (joint bank accounts for example) with the "intention" of being husband and wife. And then what about the kids are they the result of a legal marriage or not. Lots could depend on that.

While I never had a common case in domestic relations court, while doing child abuse cases it was an occasional issue. I tried my best to ignore it because it could be a nightmare trying to figure out if some alleged father was married to the mother when someone "thought" there "might" have been a common law marriage.

The crux of the problem is that by definition a common law marriage is not provable with a marriage license or some such document.

Just imagine trying to figure out the terms of an oral contract 20 years later when the parties don't even remember if there was a contract.

It would be very helpful to know WHY you are asking the question.

Colorado Common-Law Marriage

Here's a paragraph from the Handbook of Colorado Family Law (3d ed., 1996) by Susan Wendall Whicher, JD: "Colorado does not define a common-law marriage as a fixed period of time of cohabitation. In Colorado, the test is the present (at the time of the relationship) intent (understanding) of the parties, as evidenced by their conduct and general repute. (Graham v. Graham, 274 P.2d 605 (Colo. 1954); People v. Lucero, 747 P.2d 660 (Colo. 1987)). If they thought they were married, *and* if they acted like they were married, if everybody thought they were marriaed, if they said they were married--they are married, regardless of how long they lived together."