You’re thought-about legally married – regardless of not having a wedding license, a ceremony, or a wedding certificate – if your state recognizes widespread law marriages and also you meet sure state law necessities. No. If you’re found to have a standard law marriage then it is a marriage identical to anybody else’s marriage, and you’ll go get all the divorce rights — property rights division in divorce, inheritance rights if the individual dies, and all the federal government benefits you get as a spouse.
What’s interesting in Pennsylvania, is since the Whitewood choice opened up same-intercourse marriage in Pennsylvania, there are no less than three situations wherein similar-intercourse couples have been able to, or a surviving member of a same-intercourse couple, have been capable of have their widespread law marriage earlier than 2014.
So they have not completed the official a part of that and, for example, people who do Social Safety illustration will discover themselves talking to lower-revenue individuals, particularly girls, who imagine they have a standard law marriage however find their relationship is just not acknowledged.
So when you’re not — for instance, one of the different instances, by the time the Whitewood determination got here down, one of many members within the relationship was too sick to have the ability to actually enter into a ceremonial marriage and so it was solely the widespread law marriage that was the premise for inheritance and other rights that come together with being a spouse.
And if you’ve been in a standard law marriage and you go forward and marry another person ceremonially, that might be bigamy when you did not end the frequent law marriage first. I don’t suppose there can be lots of people who benefit from this as a result of most individuals are going to be able to profit from ceremonial marriage now.