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Marriage Marriage
Remarriage
Bigamous Marriages
Engaging ... and Disengaging
Can you still be classified as common-law if you're still legally married? My father who has been seperated from my mother for over 25 years is involved and living with a woman that has just recently left her husband 3 months ago. They are living together and I need to know if they would be considered commonlaw if they lived together but were still legally married. (by W of Delta, BC) Believe it or not, the answer is yes. You see, there really is no definition of "common law," except that the Family Relations Act defines "spouse" - for certain parts of the act - as including people who have been in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years. The purpose of this definition is to give people in such relationships certain rights and obligations against the other, including, for example, spousal support. It is possible, therefore, for someone who is still married but separated to be involved in another relationship which will bring him or her into the Family Relations Act. If your father and the woman he was involved with were together in a marriage-like relationship for two years or more, despite the fact that he is still married, she might have certain rights against him. Her rights, in the situation you have described, will essentially be limited to a claim of spousal support under the act. She won't be entitled to claim for a division of assets, since she and your father were never married. And, of course, your father will have a claim against her for spousal support as well. Click here to go to the top of the page. My husband and I were married in the state of Washington, however we are Canadian citizens and have always resided in British Columbia. We were not allowed to marry in Canada because of a point in the law which stated (at that time) that you could not marry someone to whom you had been related to by marriage previously. That is why we married in Washington. We now wish to divorce. Is our marriage recognized in Canada? Do we have to divorce here? (by B of Cyberspace, BC) What your question comes down to is: where are you living now, and have you lived there for at least one year? If you're living in BC you can get your divorce here, and, if you and your husband are agreed on the terms of your divorce, you can do it yourself. Your marriage is valid in BC so long as it is valid in Washington. Click here to go to the top of the page. I am a male Canadian citizen who left BC in 1988, and has been living in Taiwan for the greater part of 15 years. In 1995 I became engaged to a Taiwanese woman. About one month before the marriage, I had second thoughts, and I clearly expressed this to my pastor who talked to my fiancee (who urged her to delay the wedding). However, my fiancee had already mailed out a large number of invitation cards to the wedding, and insisted it was impossible to contact so many people to call off the banquet... so we agreed to a compromise. I agreed to attend an "Engagement Banquet" so that she could save face. The day of the banquet, we arrived and had dinner with her friends and family (not one of my friends or family attended or recieved invitations). There was no wedding license, no one to perform any ceremony, and we never registered a wedding afterwards. There were no vows, and no signatures. Two and a half years later, when I decided to end our stormy relationship, she informed me that we had been legally married! After consulting several lawyers, I discovered it was true. A seldom used method of marriage in Taiwan (intended for a largely illiterate population several decades ago) is to simply invite several witnesses for dinner and declare your marriage! In Taiwan,I am unable to prove that I was aware of this. The judge simply maintains that I did not tell anyone (on the day of the banquet) that I was I was NOT getting married. Case closed. No friends or family of mine attended, and not a single word of English was spoken during the banquet. I was unaware this was a marriage, and, furthermore, unable to express that I was NOT getting married. My 2 questions are: 1)what proof (documents) must I offer a court in Canada to apply to have my marriage voided? 2)how long does the procedure take? I know a divorce is possible in Canada, but I'd rather go with the truth. We have no children, we've been separated for 5 years, and the courts here have also refused my request for a divorce. I'll be leaving Taiwan for good, and returning to B.C. this year. (by R of Taipei, Taiwan) You, unfortunately, have a very interesting problem. Here's what I think. Firstly, your defence to the validity of the marriage is essentially that it is voidable because of:
You may be able to claim that the marriage was invalid because:
You have some problems, however. You'll have to talk about:
... and so forth. Now, there are still further issues. In Canada, had you lived together for as long as you did before learning of the fact of the marriage, you'd be considered to be common-law. Your wife may still have her claws into you in the sense that she will have certain claims against you (like for spousal support) resulting from your common-law status. What it all comes down to is this: yes, you can make an application for a declaration that your marriage is void. This can be done by way of a Petition. On the other hand, after five years, you're also eligible to claim for a divorce as a result of separation, no matter what view you take of the marriage. This can be done by the ordinary divorce process. Either way, MUST serve your wife with notice of your intention to make the application. Each option has its pros and cons. A Petition may be cheaper to file, but you'll still have to appear before a judge to argue your case. Plus you'll have to establish all those facts I listed above. The normal divorce process won't require proof of these things, however you'll have to live in BC for a whole year before you can apply for a divorce here. If you go by Petition, you could probably do it within two months of your return to BC, assuming you can serve your wife with the pleadings. If you go by the normal process, you'll have to wait a year before you can apply, and it'll take another two months at least to get the order done. Click here to go to the top of the page. I have recently had a forced arranged marriage and I really want to get out of it. I would like to have an annulment, due to my traumatic circumstances of marriage. What can you offer me for advice? I'm extremely frustrated. I'd also like to know the estimated costs if I were to obtain a lawyer to deal with my matter. (by M of Vancouver, BC) Annulment is available only in very limited circumstances. Have a look at the section of my website called "Marriage & Divorce". It will tell you the circumstances under which annulments can be granted. On the other hand, nothing is stopping you from getting a divorce, and your legal fees will probably be about the same. You, just like every other married woman, can seek a divorce if you want to, and your husband has very little to say about it. Once one of the grounds of divorce is made out, you'll get your divorce. As far as legal fees go, it's impossible to tell. It will depend on the lawyer you hire, the fuss your husband puts up, and whether any issues apart from divorce are involved. That being said, for a straight divorce, many lawyers will charge as little as $1,000. If it's more complex than that, well, the sky's the limit. I'm sorry, but I can't provide you with an estimate of your potential legal bill. In any event, read the section of my website I referred you to. It should give you all the information you need. You should also consider meeting with a lawyer to discuss your situation. You don't have to hire him or her, but the meeting should suffice to give you an initial diagnosis of your problem and, at the very least, point you in the right direction. Click here to go to the top of the page. I have been granted an order of divorce in B.C. on November 21, 2003. It will take effect on December 23, 2003, 31 days later. I am planning to go to Cairo in the beginning of 2004 to remarry. In Egypt, a woman, no matter what nationality she is must be divorced for 3 months prior to obtaining a civil marriage. My question is, does my 3 month waiting period start from the day I was granted the order in court or does my 3 month wait start 31 days after the order? It's very important to me because my wedding will be a couple days after I arrive and I'm planning to only stay in Egypt for a total of 3 weeks. My family will be attending too, so the tickets to purchase would be a costly mistake on my part if I don't get the correct date that I can marry. (by M of Chilliwack, BC) Unfortunately, the divorce order won't take effect until 31 days after the date the divorce order is made. The technical reason why this is the case is that the 31 days allows the appeal period to elapse before the divorce takes effect, not that many people appeal divorce orders. This means that you are officially unmarried on 23 December 2003. I'm sorry to give you the bad news. Perhaps you could marry in a country neighbouring Egypt which has a different legal requirement for remarriage? Click here to go to the top of the page. I have reviewed about 20 websites, including those of the Federal and Provincial Governments, but I'm still not sure what obligations marriage brings. I have been married for less than a year, and I was under the impression that my husband and I have joint interest in both the assets and liabilities we have acquired since our wedding date. Recently, 2 friends have told me that, since they did not co-sign for their husbands' debts (e.g. credit cards, mortgages, car loans), they cannot be held liable for those debts. Is this true? If so, how can it be that married persons have mutual interests in family assets but not liabilities? Unfortuantely, I have not been able to find any descriptions of the obligations marriage brings — just government fact sheets on how to qualify for marriage. While my own marriage is very strong, I would still like to be clear in my understanding of the law. (by A of Vancouver, BC) Well, the legal obligations marriage entails are a lot less severe than they were 100 years ago. Then, you and your husband were litterally considered to be one person, and he had total control over your assets, your bank accounts, your business activities, your ability to acquire and dispose of real estate and what not. Nowadays, it's a bit more independent. Essentially, the question you've asked is about assets and debts. Under the provincial Family Relations Act, you and your husband are presumed to have an equal interest in all of your assets, so long as they qualify as "family assets", regardless of whether they were brought into the marriage or acquired afterwards, and regardless of whether they're in your joint names or just one person's name. Debts, on the other hand, aren't mentioned anywhere in the FRA. What you should expect, however, is that if a debt was incurred for family purposes, such as a downpayment, or to buy groceries, that debt will be considered to be shared... a debt you'll both be liable for. If the debt was used for a purely personal purpose, such as a trip to Vegas, you'll probably be on the hook for that yourself. You should also expect that you'll be on the hook for anything you've co-signed. That's not a marital obligation, it's a matter between you and the bank. Apart from obvious matters of liability, such as when you co-sign a loan, the question of the "obligations of marriage" is a peculiar one, since the law usually becomes involved only when the relationship has broken down and the spouses are trying to allocate responsibility. Click here to go to the top of the page. My common-law partner and I want to get married in Las Vegas, but we also want a proper ceremony here in Vancouver. Do we have to "renew our vows" once we want to get married here, or can just have a traditional ceremony with the signing of the license etc? We want the second wedding to be the "official" one. (by K of Vancouver, BC) You can only get married once. If you marry in Vegas, that'll be your "official" marriage, and the one here in BC will be a sort of renewing-the-vows type of thing. If you want the "real" one to be your marriage in BC, why not have something else in Vegas, like a "commitment ceremony" or something to that effect? Surely Elvis can do more than just marry people, there ought to be some other ceremony you can have. Click here to go to the top of the page. I have been dating my grade school sweetheart. We are getting pretty serious with each other. I would like to marry her but I have some concerns. She is on social security disability/Medicaid because of having a deal with cancer and she also has two daughters. She didn't, as I understand it, work enough over the years to have put enough points into social security to draw disability from them but is on welfare/ Medicaid. I do not want her to lose any of her benefits for her and her girls because I want to marry her. I can not put her on my insurance because of "pre-existing conditions", the cancer. My income would end up taking her benefits away or greatly reducing what she is getting for her and the girls. I just wish that we could get married. We live in South Carolina. I know that we have the common law marriage thing. We both would like to have a ceremony of some sort. We want to have some options of what we can do. (by K of Cyberspace, SC, USA) If I understand you correctly, you and your common-law partner want to get married, but if you get married you’re worried that a lot of her benefits will be cut off, and she needs those benefits to survive, particularly her medical benefits. If you can’t get married, it seems to me that you ought to be looking at some other way to commemorate your relationship. It sounds like you’re quite committed to each other as it is! I suggest that you and she start being creative about this. In the days before gays and lesbians were allowed to marry in this province, a popular substitute was a “commitment ceremony.” The idea was that you gather your friends and family and have a celebration that is a marriage ceremony in all but name and legal effect. Commitment ceremonies remain popular among people morally opposed to marriage. I do not know that the laws of South Carolina have to say about common-law status and what that entails. However, I suspect that there is nothing at all stopping you and your partner from living as if you and she were married. (In this province, common-law couples do live as if they were married, there just isn’t the same web of legal issues between them when they break up.) You can wear wedding bands and name each other in your Wills, and otherwise live as man and wife. You can even adopt her children. The only difference is that you’re not legally married. I would encourage you and your partner to be creative about this. Call it a commitment ceremony, call it a partnership ceremony, call it a not-quite-marriage ceremony. You can exchange vows with one another, and have a fabulous reception. Whatever you do, you must ensure that you don’t say whatever vows are required to marry under South Carolina law and don’t get a marriage licence. Click here to go to the top of the page. I began dating my girlfriend right after she separated from her husband. We want to get married, and I already have the ring and would like to propose to her. The only problem is, I would have to ask her to marry me before her divorce is final. Is it ok to do this. (by G of Raleigh, NC, USA) Bearing in mind that, as a lawyer who practices only in British Columbia, Canada, I don't know diddly about the laws of North Carolina, it seems to me that there's nothing stopping you and your significant other from becoming engaged. The only thing you can't do while she's still married is actually get married. Apart from that, if you'd like to pop the question, go ahead! Good luck to you! Click here to go to the top of the page. My friend married a fellow two days ago, but her divorce isn't going to complete for another week. Is there any problem to register her marriage? Does the date she applied for the divorce make a difference? (by K of Cyberspace, BC) Unfortunately, your friend’s marriage isn’t valid and therefore can’t be registered. You cannot marry before you are divorced. If you do, it could qualify as bigamy and would render the second marriage invalid. What your friend can do is this: don’t tell any of the wedding guests that the marriage wasn’t valid. No one will get upset. Later, once the divorce has gone through, she and her new husband can simply get a new marriage licence and have a quiet civil ceremony with a Marriage Commissioner. None of the guests and none of the parents need to know about that. Just remember, she is presently married to her first husband. She has NOT legally remarried. If she wants to marry the fellow, she’ll have to wait until her divorce from husband #1 goes through. Click here to go to the top of the page. Can you please tell me exactly what the degrees of consanguinity are? How close in relation can two people be to still have a legal marriage? (by X of Vancouver, BC) The Marriage (Prohibited Degrees) Act reads as follows: (1) Subject to subsection (2), persons related by consanguinity, affinity or adoption are not prohibited from marrying each other by reason only of their relationship (2) No person shall marry another person if they are related (a) lineally by consanguinity or adoption;(b) as brother and sister by consanguinity, whether by the whole blood or by the half-blood; or(c) as brother and sister by adoption In other words, people who are related to one another can marry, so long as they don’t fall within the prohibited relationships set out in s. 2(2). Brothers and sisters can’t marry, neither can lineal relatives. “Lineal” relatives are relatives in a direct line of descent. In other words children, their mothers and fathers, their grandmothers and grandfathers and so forth, cannot marry one another between generations. As a result of s. 2(2) it seems to me that the closest relationship that can marry would be first cousins. I am not sure how broad “lineal” should be interpreted, but I suspect that it would include first aunts and uncles, that is the brothers and sisters of a child’s mother and father. As I’m not at my office I am not absolutely whether “lineally” includes aunts and uncles. Click here to go to the top of the page. How soon after divorce I can remarry? (by S of Toronto, ON) You can remarry 31 days after the divorce order is pronounced. If you want to remarry that soon (or, in fact, at any time within a couple of years of your divorce), you should also ask the court for a "Certificate of Divorce" once the 31 days have passed. Click here to go to the top of the page. My husband and I seperated last year. On the anniversary of our separation, my lawyer will file my divorce papers with the court. She said that I shouldn't plan on remarrying for at least 3-5 months, because that is how long it takes to get the official divorce documents mailed out to me. If a state, like Nevada. just wants the date your divorce becomes final and what city it was filed in, can my current fiance and I get married there without waiting up to 5 months for the official divorce documents? (by L of Cyberspace, BC) Honestly, I'm not sure what, if anything Nevadan marriage commissioners would require to conduct a marriage ceremony. I think you could find out by doing a websearch for "las vegas marriage service" or something to that effect. In a jurisdiction where proof of divorce is required, a Certificate of Divorce (which the court here issues) is all that's needed. Now, there are ways to speed things up. First, you can file your Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim now, as long as you've lived in BC for the past year. That'll cut about 30 days from the process for actually applying for the divorce. Once the anniversary of your separation rolls around, file your application. It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to process the application in Vancouver, then end product of which is a divorce order. You can apply for your Certificate of Divorce 31 days after the date the divorce order was made, so now we're down to 2 to 2 1/2 months after [anniversary date]. Now, the court will fast-track the processing period if there's urgency, like a pending marriage. Your lawyer would just send in a cover letter explaining the urgency with the application materials. You can also short-circuit the 31 day waiting period if your and your present husband sign a waiver of appeal. I'd file that with your application materials. Click here to go to the top of the page. I would like to have your legal advice pertaining to a lady friend of mine, an Indian citizen who happened to have got married to a Canadian citizen. It all started when the company with whom this person was working in Canada sent him to the United Arab Emirates on business. He then got married to my lady friend and had a child. After the child’s birth, we came to understand that this person is already married and has children in Canada. This we came to know from his previous wife who had come over to UAE and exposed this person. Presently this person is in Canada and settled there with his first wife, knowing that his first wife would have had sued him. What we would like to know from you Sir is:
I would appreciate if you could please, let us know on this. (by K of Dubai, UAE) Firstly, I can't give you legal advice. All I can do is provide an answer to your questions; do not consider my answer to be legal advice. Proper legal advice comes from a face-to-face meeting with a lawyer who has the opportunity to ask you questions and explore the issues. 1) Under Canadian law, the second marriage (to your friend) is void as the husband was already married. However, if the marriage happened in India, it may be valid if Indian law permits a man to have more than one wife; regardless, it will not be valid in Canada. There are no remedies under the civil law that I can think of which might help your friend. Possibly, she might bring an action against him for fraud, but she would have to establish, in monetary terms, the harm she suffered as a result. There is possibly a Criminal Code sanction for the second marriage, however that will require the cooperation of the police and the lawyers for the government to prosecute the offence. As I don't practice criminal law, I can't tell you exactly what the offence is or what the punishment might be. 2) Under the criminal law, your friend would first have to lay a complaint with the police. She'd give the local police a phone call and describe what happened. In Canada, people cannot "lay charges" the way they do in the US. The lawyers for the government must approve the charges before criminal proceedings commence. 3) If she starts a criminal proceeding, the process will be free to your friend. If she starts a civil law suit against the fellow, the cost could be anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on how the case unfolds and what her claim is. Really, it's almost impossible to say how much it would cost. 4) If she starts a criminal proceeding, anywhere from six months to two years. If the matter proceedings civil court, anywhere from one year to three years, again depending on how the case unfolds. Click here to go to the top of the page. My estranged husband has informed me that he was already married when he married me. This apparently happened in Alberta just prior to his meeting me. My question is this: how do I find out if he was indeed married at the time of our marriage? Where do I go to find this information? (by M of Sidney, BC) Believe it or not, this sort of thing happens every now and then, and probably more frequently than you'd think. Call the Alberta Department of Vital Statistics. I can't see how marriage certificates wouldn't be public record, although you're right to have some concerns about the privacy laws. The Alberta DVS is likely the only organization that will be able to tell you whether your husband was married when he married you. One more thing, if he was married, you won't need to get divorced. Just apply for a declaration that your marriage is void. Click here to go to the top of the page. My boyfriend asked me to marry him. He recently published explicit information about us on an online site. I was angry and asked him to remove it as I was recieving calls and mail about it and it was embarassing. He went on a tirade about freedom of speech saying he should be able to write anything he wants as a result he broke our engagment. Now he is telling me if I do not return the ring he is going to sue me in court. Can he do this? I flushed it in anger. (by S of Cyberspace, BC) From my point of view, your anger was entirely justified! Your ex sounds like quite a goof. There is in fact an old rule of the common law about engagement rings: the person who breaks off the engagement isn't entitled to have the ring. Since he broke off the engagement, he isn't entitled to demand that you hand the ring back to him (flushed or not). If you had broken off the engagement, on the other hand, you wouldn't be entitled to keep it. Relax. His threats to sue you are a lot of hot air. Click here to go to the top of the page. I'm separated from my wife but in a new relationship. Do I have to wait until I'm divorced before I propose to my new girlfriend? (by Q of Vernon, BC) Nope. Go ahead and propose. The only thing you can't do while you're still married is remarry. For that to happen, you'll have to wait for your divorce. Click here to go to the top of the page. My fiance and I recently went to our priest to fill out some forms prior to getting married. One of the questions asked if we are related by a valid marriage, my fiance answered "yes" as his uncle married my aunt (his dad's brother and my mum's sister). The priest said he has to look into that. Does that mean there is a possibility we cannot get married? (by M of Delta, BC) The Marriage Act talks about "lineal" relatedness. That means being related directly by blood, like a mother and daughter or a father and grandson. You are not related lineally to your fiancee's uncle. As far as I'm concerned, go ahead, get your marriage licence and get married! Click here to go to the top of the page. Am I legally married if I was married in Las Vegas, Nevada but neglected to register my marriage in Canada? (by J of Gibbons, AB) If you were properly married, you are married. Unless your Vegas marriage was performed by someone who wasn't licenced by the State of Nevada to marry people, you're stuck with it. It doesn't matter whether you've told the government of Alberta that you're married. Click here to go to the top of the page. 1. How long do I wait to get a divorce paper after I divorce my partner? 2. How long do I have to wait after divorce to remarry? 3. Is it allowed in law to remarry my ex spouse after divorce? (by T of Brampton, ON) Under the Divorce Act, you can't remarry until the appeal period for the divorce order has expired. In BC, the appeal period is 30 days, and the divorce then takes effect on the 31st day. You can then get a Certificate of Divorce, which is what I think you mean by "divorce paper." You cannot remarry any sooner than following the expiration of the appeal period. It's 30 days in BC; I don't know how long the appeal period is in Ontario. Yes, you certainly can remarry an ex. It happens a fair bit, actually. Click here to go to the top of the page. Site Navigation
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