Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: cohabitation

Traditionally, cohabitation meant living together in the same physical premises. Thus, even if the parties were not sharing sleeping quarters, they were considered as "cohabiting" for purposes of determining divorce eligibility.

However, the more modern trend is to examine the overall circumstances of each situation. In DC, if the parties agree that they aren't sleeping together even though they may share the same housing unit, the court will generally treat that as a separation. In Maryland, the courts are somewhat stricter, though there have been cases where the parties convinced the court that they maintained separate and distinct portions of the same property, and were therefore considered separated for divorce purposes.