Q: Started common law marriage in Montana moved to Ohio and continued filing all taxes as married 15 years total.
Also recieved medicaid for our children as married in both states. Gave wife wedding rings. Joint bank accounts and shared property. We are now seperated for 4 years. We lived together had implied agreement through filing taxes state and federal as married in Montana for 7 years and continued the same in Ohio for 8 years, Although 4 of them in Ohio have been married filing seperate. Do we need a divorce? One party has recently remarried someone else with a license issued in Richland County.
A: In order to fully answer this question, one would need to know whether or not the couple described map of the criteria for common law marriage in Montana when they moved to Ohio. Ohio has not recognized common law marriage (within the state) since 1990. If, however, the couple met all the criteria for Montana before they moved out of that state, Ohio would recognize it.
Nicholas P. Weiss agrees with this answer
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