Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: valid marriage

The marriage should still be valid(in my opinion).

Re: valid marriage

I think this is not the section to post this question. Believe it or not a divorce lawyer would know more about this, even though that is the end of a marriage.

For example, if the doctor fails to fill out a birth certificate for 3 months, the baby is still born!

However, I seem to recall reading about exactly this issue. I think Mr. Hendrickson is correct.

I believe -- if I recall correctly -- that the wrong is on the minister for not doing what the law requires. But the marriage is still valid. Do you see the difference? The minister has acted wrongly by not recording the marriage promptly. But this has nothing to do with the validity of the marriage.

One reason this is true is that the law (as it traditionally developed) favored the validity of a marriage for many reasons, including for the benefit of children who might be born in the marriage.

So if the minister habitually failed to follow the rules, the State might take action against his right to conduct marriages (I suppose) but the marriages would remain valid.