“Informal Marriage” is more popularly known as “common law marriage.” In 1997, the Texas Legislature did away with common law marriage by placing this law in the Texas Family Code.
In order to prove an informal marriage, a person has to show 3 things:
- The couple agreed to be married;
- The couple lived together, in Texas, after agreeing to be married; and
- The couple represented – to other people in Texas – that they were married.
Most people know about numbers 2 and 3 above. Few people remember number 1 – the agreement to be married.
Each informal marriage case turns on its own facts. As a general rule, when an informal marriage case goes to trial, judges tend to not want to impose a marriage on someone when no marriage was intended. But that does not mean that it will not happen.
If the evidence is strong enough to suggest an agreement to be married, judges may declare couples married and grant divorces based upon a finding of informal marriage.
So for example: A couple gets divorced. Then they start sleeping together. Then they move in together. Then one person puts the other person on his/her health insurance at work as a “covered spouse.” Or one person files bankruptcy and lists the other person as his/her “spouse” on the schedules. Then the judge might find that this couple has remarried after their divorce.
If you are concerned that you may have become informally married, you may need legal advice if that relationship is falling apart. Talking to a family law attorney might be a good idea.
