Common-Law Marriage and Divorce in Colorado
Colorado is one of a handful of states that still recognizes common-law marriage. And the misconceptions about it are widespread enough that they regularly create legal problems for people who don’t realize they’re married—or for people trying to prove that they were.
What Creates a Common-Law Marriage
There is no time requirement. Living together for seven years doesn’t automatically make you married. Living together for seven months doesn’t disqualify you. The question is whether two people mutually agreed to be married and held themselves out to the community as married.
Evidence the court considers: using the same last name, filing joint tax returns, referring to each other as husband and wife (or spouse), sharing financial accounts, listing each other as spouse on insurance or beneficiary forms, and how they represented themselves to friends, family, and institutions.
An Affidavit of Common-Law Marriage filed at the county clerk’s office creates a formal record—but even that isn’t conclusive. Some courts have rejected affidavits where the couple didn’t actually live together or hold each other out as married. And couples without an affidavit can still be found to have a common-law marriage based on the totality of the evidence.
Why It Matters in Divorce
If you’re in a common-law marriage and you want out, you need a divorce. Same process, same rules, same property division and support framework as any other marriage. There’s no “common-law breakup” that’s simpler or cheaper. A common-law marriage is a marriage, period.
Conversely, if your ex claims you have a common-law marriage and you disagree, you may find yourself in a dispute where the threshold question—are we even married?—has to be litigated before anything else can proceed.
Common-law marriage questions come up more often than you’d think, particularly in Colorado’s Front Range communities. At Burnham Law, we’ve handled both sides—establishing and disputing common-law marriages—and we can help you understand where you stand.