common law marriage

What is the name of your state? oklahoma
what are my rights regarding a common law marriage and custody and child support arrangements?

None.

Common law exists only if you have signed your name as Mr & Mrs during your relationship, plus had joint checking savings credit cards as Mr & mrs, had wills made out to each other and naming you as a spouse, then you probably could be considered common law married.....anything less then that , you were just 2 Single people shackin up, but

You do have rights if you actually bought things together out of joint checking savings credit cards, then you would own 1/2. Custody and childcare, the parents are always responsile for the caring and paying of their kids, so nothing is changed here.

what is the question you really want to ask?

OK does recognize common law marriage. Guidelines can be found at http://www.financialaid.ou.edu/faq/2002-2003/commonlaw_marriage.pdf and http://www.divorcenet.com/ok/ok-art02.html

Since it seems you have had children together, it is very likely OK will recognize the two of you as married. Your best bet would be to talk to a local attorney to find out wxactly what your rights - and obligations - might be. Good luck.

momma_tiger said:

OK does recognize common law marriage. Guidelines can be found at http://www.financialaid.ou.edu/faq/2002-2003/commonlaw_marriage.pdf and http://www.divorcenet.com/ok/ok-art02.html

Since it seems you have had children together, it is very likely OK will recognize the two of you as married. Your best bet would be to talk to a local attorney to find out wxactly what your rights - and obligations - might be. Good luck.

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Thanks momma_tiger,
i spoke to a local attorney. oklahoma only recognizes common law marriage if the intent and perception is there. regardless of anything bought, joint accounts, using names or whatever. if it was our intent to be married then we are. in my case we are not. as far as our child, there is a paternity suit to be filed for custody. (not to be confused with establishing paternity)aahlee was way off base. but again thanks momma tiger.
breze82

actually I was RIGHT......

Intent to marry......

Signing your name as Mr & Mrs on everything seems to me like intent to marry.

Introducing you as my spouse, seems like intent.

Having wills made out to each other naming you as a spouse seems like intent.

Joint checking accounts/ credit cards applying for loans signed as you and "the hubbys" last name, seems like intent

This is for all intensive purposes the intent to marry but without the license....

Since you did not do this there is no way you can be considered married.

Now the other question...joint property bought out of joint money is BOTH 1/2 yours and in any split up it has to be accounted for and divided equally...

That applies to anyone, yes even if you are gay or lesbians!!

aahlee said:

actually I was RIGHT......

Intent to marry......

Signing your name as Mr & Mrs on everything seems to me like intent to marry.

Introducing you as my spouse, seems like intent.

Having wills made out to each other naming you as a spouse seems like intent.

Joint checking accounts/ credit cards applying for loans signed as you and "the hubbys" last name, seems like intent

This is for all intensive purposes the intent to marry but without the license....

Since you did not do this there is no way you can be considered married.

Now the other question...joint property bought out of joint money is BOTH 1/2 yours and in any split up it has to be accounted for and divided equally...

That applies to anyone, yes even if you are gay or lesbians!!

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aahlee,
according to the attorney i guess if i would use his last name that would be considered intent. but as far as joint checking accounts, credit cards, loans, or even buying something together does not constitute intent. we do have joint accounts and have even filed taxes jointly but that does not constitute intent. i mean after all my father and applied for a loan together and that certainly does not mean we are now commom law married. my boyfriend and i can do anything together and as long as we have not percieved to anyone that we are married...we are not. so therefore no matter what we have together there has to be no divorce filed. we would have to legally split up whatever we have together. but that does not mean there has to be a divorce. but a paternity suit does have to be filed to establish custody, visitation and child support.
breze82

Breze82:

You asked what is your rights as common law married, 99% of the time a woman wants to find any excuse to use this to prove she is maried.

You sounded like you didn't want to be married. So i gave you a number of things that is taken into consideration to determine if your are or not.

You might have had one or two things to say yes, when you needed say 5 or 6 things to prove you were married.

so you have a choice: Damn "close but no cigar"....or WhooHoo.. i'm freeeeee

aahlee said:

Breze82:

You asked what is your rights as common law married, 99% of the time a woman wants to find any excuse to use this to prove she is maried.

You sounded like you didn't want to be married. So i gave you a number of things that is taken into consideration to determine if your are or not.

You might have had one or two things to say yes, when you needed say 5 or 6 things to prove you were married.

so you have a choice: Damn "close but no cigar"....or WhooHoo.. i'm freeeeee

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aahlee,
the reason i asked what my rights were is because i didn't want to divorce some jerk i was never married to in the first place, duh. why rub salt in a wound. and as far as Oklahoma is concerned there is only ONE thing to take into consideration to establish a common law marriage and that is INTENT. thank you

breze82

You said you filed taxes together..... what was the filing status on those tax returns? Single, Married filing joint, Married filing seperate, or him filing as Head of Household with you as a dependant?

Re: breze82

MissouriGal said:

You said you filed taxes together..... what was the filing status on those tax returns? Single, Married filing joint, Married filing seperate, or him filing as Head of Household with you as a dependant?

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he filed as head of household, me as a dependent, of course. we are not married and wouldn't agree to file as such. my attorney said this makes no difference on the common law...we are still not married and there has to be no divorce filed.

The reason I asked was because if you had filed as married filing joint then that would have satisfied your intent. But since you were just a dependant that doesn't even qualify as filing a return jointly, he just listed you as a dependant on his own individual return. It just made me wonder when you said you filed tax returns jointly is all.

MissouriGal said:

The reason I asked was because if you had filed as married filing joint then that would have satisfied your intent. But since you were just a dependant that doesn't even qualify as filing a return jointly, he just listed you as a dependant on his own individual return. It just made me wonder when you said you filed tax returns jointly is all.

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my mistake, we did file joint. but our tax people said that doesn't necessarily imply intent. but the law has changed and this year you can't file joint unless your last name is the same. in oklahoma.