Understanding Common Law Marriage

While most marriages are recognized with a marriage license, which is a legal document certifying your marriage, some marriages are recognized after you've been with a person for a long while. Common law marriage is much like a regular marriage, but it does not require a marriage contract or license. Rather, if you meet certain conditions, you're considered married in the state of Texas.
Like legal marriages, common law marriages may include benefits for the spouses, such as filing a joint tax return or having a joint insurance plan. Also like legal marriages, they may require a divorce if the union breaks down. To determine whether you need to get a divorce, you first need to determine if you are in a common law marriage.
Typically, these marriages are on dependent on three criteria. If you meet all three criteria, you may be in a common law marriage, and you may need to get a divorce when splitting from your partner. The three criteria are:

1. You and your partner both agree that you are married to one another
2. You and your partner present yourselves as husband and wife either in social situations or legally; this may include introducing your partner as your husband or wife or filing a joint tax return
3. You and your partner live together as a married couple in the state where you claim your common law marriage exists

These criteria are important, because meeting them may mean that you have joint property and debts and children. If this is the case, you may need to get divorce to determine assets, debts, and child custody if you cannot agree to terms.
Conversely, couples who are married because they meet the criteria may become legally married by proving that their marriage exists. The advantage of this is that your marriage will be legally recognized. The disadvantage is that being legally married means you certainly have to file for divorce should you and your spouse decide to split.
Divorce proceedings for common law marriages are just like divorce proceedings for legal marriages. As such, you will likely need a divorce attorney when going through the process to handle the legal aspects of the case.