Marital Status

[RemitAdvice]

Smh

According to the attorney, these are the facts:

1) The validity of the marriage, since the ceremony was performed in CA, needs to be confirmed IN CA, not VA since VA 'Since Virginia gives full faith and credit to the laws of other states'. (He went on to give some other examples.)
a)Upon further investigation the original VA license that was taken and signed off on in CA was returned WITH the newlyweds to VA and they themselves turned it into New Kent County Courthouse. I did call the county (and the city) that they were married in in CA and no record of ANY marriage was found involving those two.

2) The Fraud issue and putative spouse: " Generally, for fraud, the parties must have a specific intent to defraud, that is, they must KNOW that what they are doing is wrong. However, for certain federal benefits, intent it not required and refunds may be required if the status is incorrectly stated on applications. I doubt, under the circumstances, that there would ever be any criminal investigation because there is a "putative" marriage. The refund of benefits question would be more a question of whether the applicable agency felt it was worth pursuing."

3) His final word to to suggest that if there were significant assets or disputes to be resolved they could file a suit with the Commonwealth to Affirm or Annul the marriage and that would confirm their marital status.


Thoughts??

 

[RemitAdvice]

Personal property dispute

*I wasn't sure where to post, technically this isn't marriage or divorce any longer I suppose, but there's some background that may be pertinent.

They went their separate ways and everything was going ok...no arguments over anything big like the houses or the cars, etc. etc. etc.

But now the person that decided that they would stay in the house is beginning to object to the person who left the residence coming in and getting their belongings. Personal stuff, mostly. Some pictures, and hunting/camping/fishing equipment. Equipment for his business, power tools and the like. Maybe, MAYBE a couple grand worth of stuff. (Christmas ornaments, etc. etc.) And now tempers are heating up and one is refusing to cooperate with the other.

So pops wants to know if he can still go and get his stuff? This is stuff they had discussed and agreed upon beforehand that he would get.

He's thinking that he may get into some trouble since it turned out they weren't married anymore, and some time has passed since he vacated the residence...and he just rides by there and gets his tree stands and stuff.

I just want to know worst case scenario, if possible.

Thank you kindly.

 

[mistoffolees]

*I wasn't sure where to post, technically this isn't marriage or divorce any longer I suppose, but there's some background that may be pertinent.

They went their separate ways and everything was going ok...no arguments over anything big like the houses or the cars, etc. etc. etc.

But now the person that decided that they would stay in the house is beginning to object to the person who left the residence coming in and getting their belongings. Personal stuff, mostly. Some pictures, and hunting/camping/fishing equipment. Equipment for his business, power tools and the like. Maybe, MAYBE a couple grand worth of stuff. (Christmas ornaments, etc. etc.) And now tempers are heating up and one is refusing to cooperate with the other.

So pops wants to know if he can still go and get his stuff? This is stuff they had discussed and agreed upon beforehand that he would get.

He's thinking that he may get into some trouble since it turned out they weren't married anymore, and some time has passed since he vacated the residence...and he just rides by there and gets his tree stands and stuff.

I just want to know worst case scenario, if possible.

Thank you kindly.

Worst case scenario is that it blows up and one of them engages in domestic violence.

Far better for them to reach an agreement. Maybe a minister or family friend can mediate that issue. There's not all that much money involved.

They will also need to make sure that the legal documents are correct. For example, if they have two cars that are in both names, each person would probably take one - but they need to transfer the titles so that the person keeping the car would actually own it.

If, however, it goes to court, it will be an expensive mess. A few of the issues:
- Establishing ownership will be difficult in most cases, but if someone can establish ownership of a given item (perhaps with purchase receipts), that person would own it.
- It was a joint home, so one party can't simply throw the other party out. It requires a legal eviction process. So, typically, either party can use the home until a court says otherwise.
- They still have to deal with the tax issues. If they simply start filing as 'single', they might get away with it, but there's no guarantee. It's possible that they'll get caught.