Nevada is known as a place to get divorced pretty quickly. The problem is that you must be legally married to get a legal divorce. You may think you have a “common law” marriage, but if you reside in Nevada, you don’t. Divorce attorneys know that currently only 11 states recognize common law marriages, and Nevada is not one of them.
What is common law marriage?

A common law marriage is generally defined as one in which the state grants the couple the rights and benefits of being married, even though they have never obtained a marriage license or had any ceremony to celebrate the marriage. Each of the states has its own requirements before recognizing a couple as a common-law marriage. For example, in Texas, as in most of the 11 states, a couple must have made an agreement to one day marry and then cohabit after the agreement was made. They must also have presented themselves to the public as married.

In Nevada, it doesn’t matter how long a couple has lived together, what their future intentions are, or whether their friends think they’re married. Nevada does not recognize common law marriage and a divorce attorney cannot change the law. If there is no marriage, there can be no divorce. This can create problems when a couple decides to separate and accumulate assets together. If you have children together, there are laws for child custody.

Nevada Custody, Visitation and Child Support Laws

Section 126.036 of the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) states that “a parent’s liberty interest in the care, custody, and management of his or her child is a fundamental right.” For a man to exercise his custody and visitation rights, and for a mother to establish her right to child support, paternity must be established. There are several different ways this can be done under Nevada law. Once paternity is determined, single parents have the same rights and obligations as married parents to each other.

Under NRS Section 125C.003, a court may order primary physical custody of a child born out of wedlock to the mother if the man is not presumed to be the father and the man has not acknowledged paternity. This can also happen if the father is aware of his paternity, but has abandoned his child.

The court will award primary custody of a child born out of wedlock to the father if the mother has abandoned the child and the father has provided “sole care and custody of the child in his absence.”

In Nevada, whether or not the parents are married to each other, a court makes its custody and visitation decisions based on what it determines is in the best interest of the child.

Division of Estate for Unmarried Couples
Nevada is a community property state, which means that all the income a legally married couple earned and all the assets they accumulated during the course of their marriage belong equally to both of them. When they get divorced, the court will divide it between them. This includes real estate, cars, furniture, savings accounts, retirement accounts, pension funds, and even the family pet.

Community property law does not apply when an unmarried but cohabiting couple separates. There are a few ways the courts can be involved in property division, but it will be in civil court, not family law court as part of a property division divorce order.

For example:
• Principles of contract: If the couple has a contract stating that they are co-owners of the property and they do not agree on how to divide it, a civil law court will evaluate the contract and make a division based on the principles of the contract.
• Joint Owners: If the couple purchased real estate and took possession as joint owners, this means that each party owns 50 percent of the property. It does not matter if one party provided more of the down payment than the other. They own the property equally and when they separate, the property is divided between them. If jointly owned with right of survivorship, when one party dies, the other party inherits the other party’s share.
• Tenants in Common: This allows a couple to own a property together but with different ownership percentages. It will be divided according to each person’s part. If one of the parties dies, that person’s share goes to their estate and is not inherited by the other party.

The Putative Spouse Doctrine
In 2004, the Nevada Supreme Court, in the case of Williams v. Williams, adopted the Putative Spouse Doctrine holding that, “Justice and equity favor the recognition of putative spouses when the parties perform a marriage ceremony in good faith and without knowledge that there is a factual or legal impediment to their marriage. “. The Court held that this policy is consistent with “Nevada’s policy of refusing to recognize common-law marriages or child support claims.” This is because the parties obtained a marriage license and made a reasonable attempt to enter into a solemn marriage relationship, something that is missing “in common-law marriages and alimony lawsuits.”

• The Putative Spouse Doctrine and Property Division: In the Williams case, the couple performed a marriage ceremony, obtained a marriage certificate, and believed they were husband and wife for 27 years. When they decided to divorce, they discovered for the first time that Mrs. William had not been divorced from her first husband at the time of Williams’ marriage. They found out that their marriage was never valid and an annulment was granted. Because they believed in good faith that they were married, the assets they accumulated during the putative marriage were divided between them as if they were community property.

• The Putative Spousal Doctrine and Spousal Support: The Nevada Supreme Court considered how other states apply this doctrine and held that spousal support cannot be awarded in the absence of “bad faith, fraud, or statutory authority.”