Do you want your wife to use your name?

[The Brain]

a retarded rabbit man.

[ulmont]

Well don't you generally have to agree to the common-law marriage? I don't think the state forces you to be married if you don't want to be.

Sure, you generally have to agree, but....

"They said we were married all the time! I deserve half their stuff (or their entire estate)!"

"No I didn't! (Or, if dead, [silence...])"

...common law marriage has high clusterfuck potential.

[Valmy]

Sure, you generally have to agree, but....

"They said we were married all the time! I deserve half their stuff (or their entire estate)!"

"No I didn't! (Or, if dead, [silence...])"

...common law marriage has high clusterfuck potential.

It solved tons of problems like this for over a century.  We were a frontier state where doing things like officially getting married were not always practical.

Naturally it has lasted long past its practical advantages but keep in mind we still have our not-so-interim Constitution from the Reconstruction period.

[ulmont]

It solved tons of problems like this for over a century.

Did you mean "overcame"?  The problems I was talking about were caused by the existence of common law marriage as a viable option, not solved.

[Valmy]

It solved tons of problems like this for over a century.

Did you mean "overcame"?  The problems I was talking about were caused by the existence of common law marriage as a viable option, not solved.

Farmer Bob dies.  There is no will, who gets the property?  Maybe the woman everybody considered his wife but they never actually got officially married?  Hence this solved this very problem.  If Farmer Bob had enough property that people are going to be fighting over it than almost certainly he has a will or would have gotten officially married.

[Admiral Yi]

I never understood why any--especially conservative places--would want to have that in the first place. It seems to me that making people married by some automatic mechanism if they don't make the choice to do it themselves is just asking for a spike in the future divorce rate.

"Makes an honest woman of her" and prevents bastards.  I can definitely see the appeal for social conservatives.

[merithyn]

I think the whole common-law marriage thing started because of the lack of justices of the peace to do marriage ceremonies, or refusing to go out into the wilds.

[CountDeMoney]

I never understood why any--especially conservative places--would want to have that in the first place. It seems to me that making people married by some automatic mechanism if they don't make the choice to do it themselves is just asking for a spike in the future divorce rate.

Living in sin is sinful.  So if you don't get married, the state will do it for you.  But dammit, you're going to be biblical.

[garbon]

I never understood why any--especially conservative places--would want to have that in the first place. It seems to me that making people married by some automatic mechanism if they don't make the choice to do it themselves is just asking for a spike in the future divorce rate.

Living in sin is sinful.  So if you don't get married, the state will do it for you.  But dammit, you're going to be biblical.

What about living as sin incarnate?

[Ideologue]

Does it cost money?  It does, right?

I think it would be a nominal amount if you do it in connection with the wedding license, but there's still a certain amount of hassle involved in changing it every-fucking-where.

Not surprised to learn that South Carolina still hasn't given up on common-law marriage.

I think it's a good thing.

[Ideologue]

To elaborate, because it's free and simple and because it gives cohabitants without a marriage license a chance to avoid being disinherited by intestacy or asshole behavior on the part of the decedent.  If that's a "clusterfuck" it's still basic justice.

[CountDeMoney]

sin incarnate?

That's a meat dish, right?

[garbon]

sin incarnate?

That's a meat dish, right?

You could say that.

[CountDeMoney]

SON OF A

Walked right into that one.

[garbon]

MAH INNOCENCE