Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

It depends on details of their living as a married couple. The law defining Common Law marriage was repealed several years ago, but relationships that pre-date the repeal may still be recognized as a Common Law marriage.

Even if the relationship is recognized as a Common Law marriage, she would not necessarily be entitled to 1/2 of the estate.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

* If the answers to your question confirm that you have a valid issue or worthwhile claim, your next step should almost always be to establish a dialog with a lawyer who can provide specific advice to you. Contact a lawyer in your county or township.

* Another reason for contacting a lawyer is that it is often impossible to give a good answer in the Internet Q&A format without having more information. The unique circumstances of your situation and things that you may not have thought to mention in your question may completely change the answer. If you want to be sure that you have a complete answer to your question and an understanding of what that answer means, establish a connection with a lawyer who practices in the area of your concern.

Living with someone and using or not using the other person's last name is not the test for a valid common law marriage. Its also unclear whether the common law marriage occurred in PA.

If so, there generally has to be words signifying that you and the other person considered yourself to be a a "married" couple and there has to be a general holding yourself out in society that you were a married couple. Example: you had dinner with friends and you were introduced by your partner as the spouse.

Since every case is fact specific, you need to see an experienced probate lawyer. The other fundamental question is what probate assets does the other person have? If they have probate assets to make litigation worthwhile, then you may wish to asset a claim arguing common law marriage. If the person had no probate assets, then it does not really matter as there will not be much to recover.

Assuming that a valid common law marriage exists, then the next question will be, aside from whether the man had probate assets, will be whether the man had any biological children. If he did, then the shares of the common law spouse and children will be determined by the intestacy law. If there are no children, it may be that the spouse will inherit everything.

But again, this assumes that the man had probate assets. If he owned real property jointly with the woman with rights of survivorship. she would get the land. If they owned as tenants in common, she only gets 1/2. If he had a joint checking account with the woman, she would probably gets what is in the account. If he had life insurance or some other asset on which she was the designated beneficiary, then she would get that. If she is not on the checking account, the land or a designated beneficiary, then she may not get any of those things regardless of whether she is classed as a common law spouse or not.

My advice would be for the woman to seek out an experienced probate attorney in the county/state where an estate is or would be probated. The attorney can then address whether a valid common law marriage existed and, if so, what the woman's share of the intestate probate assets would be. If it is cost-effective to litigate, then the woman may wish to assert her claim regarding a cpommon law marriage.