Alabama abolishes common-law marriage

Marriage tile
Marriage tile

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - If you want to become recognized as a married couple in Alabama, you will have to get a marriage license and exchange "I do's."

From Sunday, Alabama no longer will not recognize any new common-law marriages, although common-law marriages entered into before then will be recognized.

Common-law marriage refers to the legal protections of marriage given to couples who live together as a married couple, but who haven't gotten a state marriage license.

Alabama had been one of a handful of states that continued to recognize common-law marriage - a practice that in America dated back to Colonial times when it was sometimes difficult to find a preacher to solemnize a marriage. Lawmakers voted earlier this year to prohibit the recognition of new common-law marriages.

"It's a national trend. We are actually on the back end of it," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said of the abolishment.

Ten states, including Alabama, in 2014 allowed common-law marriage either through statute or court rulings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Alabama didn't have a law allowing common-law marriage, but the courts had recognized the relationships as deserving of legal protections if there was proof of a mutual agreement to permanently enter the "marriage relationship to the exclusion of all other relationships" and public recognition of the couple as married.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, passed with lopsided support in the Alabama Legislature.

The abolition of common-law marriage comes a year after an appellate judge urged Alabama lawmakers to take the action.

Civil Appeals Judge Terri Willingham Thomas issued a dissenting opinion in a 2015 divorce case, saying common-law marriage for years has taxed the court system with trying to sort out who should be considered married and who should not.

Thomas said anyone can get married now, so common-law marriage isn't needed and that laws had evolved to adequately protect single parents and children born out of wedlock.

"The legislature, by its silence, should not require the courts of this state to continue to struggle to separate fraudulent claims of marriage from valid ones when requiring parties who wish to enter into a marital relationship to obtain a marriage certificate would decisively solve the problem," Thomas wrote.

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