Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

In 2000 I had a paper drawn up by the district justice secretary saying something to the effect that so and so were acting as husband and wife on such and such a day so that I could be placed on his insurance. It was something similar to common law paperwork or something. I had to have the paper notarized and now I cannot find my paper. Everything we have done is as husband and wife, I carry his last name also. Problem being, I was married before and on my drivers license it has my previous married name and my current name. I want to remove the previous married name because mykids are no longer in school and I don't need to carry it. I went to the DMV and they need a marriage license to remove a previous name even though I took my divorce decree, ss card and bank info that all my my current name. If we go to get a marriage license now it looks as though we just now became husband and wife not in May of 2000....what can I do?


Asked on 8/29/13, 10:10 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Davidson Law Office of John A. Davidson

Quit trying to do things on the cheap. So what authority did a letter from the secretary carry. Doing it right the first time like having the dj marry you would have cost less then $200. Pa. no longer recognized any new common law marriages.from 2004 forward

So you're going to have to do what you should have done back in 2000 get married. If you got to a DJ to get the paper drawn up why not just do it right and get married. it wasn't like you couldn't get to a DJ.which was the justification for common law marriage back when Pa. had them.

{John}

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Answered on 8/29/13, 3:08 pm


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