Understanding Common Law Marriage in Colorado

Understanding whether you are married before a judge or decider of the public manner is sometimes crucial. In other ways it is less so. Given that most people do not consider the question of legal marriage on a daily basis, it is easily overlooked.

Absent any factual discussion in which this becomes an issue, ask your lawyer and leave it at that. When it does become an issue is when the relationship has gone bad enough to require the bite of the legal system to help divide up the assets or what have you.

Laws change so reviewing the current state should always commence with a review of the latest cases and statutes for the area in which you are interested. A good way to do this is to Google is Colorado a common law marriage state to see the latest legal articles on the subject. Using the right search term will yield the most accurate results for your purposes.

Common law marriage is a marriage without a license or ceremony. With the proliferation of the internet and simple computer technology, being married without a formal ceremony is probably less common than it was in years past, but there still may be situations where folks forego the time and expense of a traditional ceremony and live together as if they were married.

To have a common law marriage in Colorado, the facts must be that you held yourself out as being married, and you must be eligible in the eyes of the law. You might think this means that the actions of people around you must lead you to believe you are married – this is false. Your actions matter, and your actions alone determine whether you are married or not. In the eyes of the law, you can be married completely apart from what others think of your relationship or what others say about it.

This is significant in that it means you cannot rely on the opinions of those around you to determine whether you are married or not. The court will not evaluate your legality simply by using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ showing what you did and then decide from that whether or not you are married. The entire legal relationship hinges on you deciding whether you are married. If you did not make this decision, then you are not married. There are no formalities or outside influences that can change this fact as far as the legal relationship is concerned.

The law in Colorado further provides that a party is legally married if the following conditions are met:

This is how the law in Colorado operates, regardless of the situation in other states. Even though President Obama has abolished common law marriages for federal income tax purposes, the IRS still wants you to establish the situation that would apply in Colorado if the state were a common law state – no matter what state you are in.

As an aside, note that the marriage does not need to be customary in any way. You are considered married by simply acting as if you are married. There are so many non-traditional forms of marriage in the United States today, that the law determined it is better to err on the side of inclusiveness. Therefore, simply holding yourself out as being married can be enough to form the legal relationship, as noted above.

There are many important ramifications of being married in the eyes of the law such as child custody, support issues, financial matters, and other legal concerns. A common law marriage could raise issues of support, dividing of property, and custody of children, if, for example, the parties were to separate.

For example, assume two individuals hold themselves out as being married and have children together. Assume these individuals never go through a formal ceremony and never fill out any marriage licenses. They just live together as if they were married and then separate. Neither has performed any of the formalities that would be required in order to perform a legal marriage – again, in the eyes of the law in Colorado, this does not matter. The law considers them married and they are subject to issues of support, property distributions, and custody of children under the laws of the State of Colorado.

This is the same no matter the circumstances surrounding the relationship. It can be a same-sex marriage, of even same-sex marriage or a marriage where one party is gender-neutral. Even though no legal procedure or administrative process has been undergone to be married, the law will still consider parties married, so long as the elements of a marriage are met as outlined above.

You can use technology like apps and SaverOne to help avoid accidental problems. For instance, using a technology like an app is a way to help avoid a potential legal minefield that could be described as distracted living. In that manner, apps and technology like SaverOne protect the individuals from potential legal liabilities, similar to how using technology helps protect individuals from distracted driving.