Legal consequences of bigamy?
December 20, 2005 4:40 PM Subscribe
Legal consequences of bigamy?
I have come to the conclusion that my wife probably didn't recieve a divorce from her last husband before we married. She was originally married in another state and records are not easily available to me, nor will she provide proof when asked. What do I do? What kind of trouble will this cause in a divorce? (Yes, things are getting bad, no I'm not just looking for revenge since we have children and no, I'm not seeking custody. ) Also, my attempts at contacting her ex(?) have been entirely unsuccessful.
I have come to the conclusion that my wife probably didn't recieve a divorce from her last husband before we married. She was originally married in another state and records are not easily available to me, nor will she provide proof when asked. What do I do? What kind of trouble will this cause in a divorce? (Yes, things are getting bad, no I'm not just looking for revenge since we have children and no, I'm not seeking custody. ) Also, my attempts at contacting her ex(?) have been entirely unsuccessful.
What caddis said. Also, it couldn't hurt to head down to the courthouse and see if there might be a friendly clerk who can give you a pointer or two. Good luck to you.
posted by Gator at 5:53 PM on December 20, 2005
posted by Gator at 5:53 PM on December 20, 2005
It's definitely something to put on the radar of your divorce lawyer, but probably not a big enough issue to warrant a whole separate legal inquiry.
The impact will depends upon what your wife knew and believed when you got married, and your current financial situation. The courts are lenient with people who thought they had a valid divorce, and probably wouldn't shift the property settlement much in your favor in that case. On the other hand, if she had no reasonable basis to believe she was actually divorced, you might have a lot more leverage. The big juice would be in keeping her from getting an alimony award and increasing your property settlement.
Just as a by-the-by, you are making a terrible strategic mistake not to seek custody. Putting up a fight on custody is just about the only bargaining chip that exists in divorce. A cynical person uses that bargaining chip to extract a more favorable property and alimony settlement, but a principled person uses it to extract good visitation, co-legal custody (enabling you to share in decisionmaking) and reasonable parameters to child support award.
posted by MattD at 7:17 PM on December 20, 2005
The impact will depends upon what your wife knew and believed when you got married, and your current financial situation. The courts are lenient with people who thought they had a valid divorce, and probably wouldn't shift the property settlement much in your favor in that case. On the other hand, if she had no reasonable basis to believe she was actually divorced, you might have a lot more leverage. The big juice would be in keeping her from getting an alimony award and increasing your property settlement.
Just as a by-the-by, you are making a terrible strategic mistake not to seek custody. Putting up a fight on custody is just about the only bargaining chip that exists in divorce. A cynical person uses that bargaining chip to extract a more favorable property and alimony settlement, but a principled person uses it to extract good visitation, co-legal custody (enabling you to share in decisionmaking) and reasonable parameters to child support award.
posted by MattD at 7:17 PM on December 20, 2005
MattD, how can someone not know if they have gotten a divorce? Surely a sizeable check (either giving or receiving) would jog the memory?
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:33 PM on December 20, 2005
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:33 PM on December 20, 2005
Also, anon, see a lawyer. Besides the good advice she can provide about your imminent divorce, she can hop on Lexis and find the earlier divorce decree in about two minutes.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:35 PM on December 20, 2005
posted by Saucy Intruder at 9:35 PM on December 20, 2005
Bigamy is a serious misdemeanor in my state (Iowa). Reasonable belief that your partner is divorced is an allowed defense here, and likely everywhere else. In case you were alse wondering about that.
I can't find anything to indicate whether a second marriage is valid when a first marriage still exists. Would you even need a divorce? Would there be community assets as in a legitimate marriage? Lawyer up. And I'd be worried about leaving kids with someone as crazy as this one sounds...
posted by jaysus chris at 10:47 PM on December 20, 2005
I can't find anything to indicate whether a second marriage is valid when a first marriage still exists. Would you even need a divorce? Would there be community assets as in a legitimate marriage? Lawyer up. And I'd be worried about leaving kids with someone as crazy as this one sounds...
posted by jaysus chris at 10:47 PM on December 20, 2005
I am deeply concerned by the fact that your spouse is not willing or able to produce these documents. This tends to indicate that there is and has always been a serious trust and communication problem in your marriage, beyond what you perceive as the immediate problem, "is she still married to someone else."
posted by ilsa at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2005
posted by ilsa at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2005
MattD, how can someone not know if they have gotten a divorce? Surely a sizeable check (either giving or receiving) would jog the memory?
I successfully got divorced with nobody writing any large checks to anybody. That's pretty easy when you're both young graduate students with no property to speak of.
It could easily happen that Alice could tell Bob that she's dealing with the divorce paperwork, and for Bob to assume that the various forms and such that he signed was the divorce, when in fact no final divorce order was ever entered (but Bob doesn't know that). The only reason I know for 100% sure that I got all the way divorced was that I had to get proof of the divorce in order to import my favorite Canadienne.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:27 AM on December 21, 2005
I successfully got divorced with nobody writing any large checks to anybody. That's pretty easy when you're both young graduate students with no property to speak of.
It could easily happen that Alice could tell Bob that she's dealing with the divorce paperwork, and for Bob to assume that the various forms and such that he signed was the divorce, when in fact no final divorce order was ever entered (but Bob doesn't know that). The only reason I know for 100% sure that I got all the way divorced was that I had to get proof of the divorce in order to import my favorite Canadienne.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:27 AM on December 21, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by caddis at 5:39 PM on December 20, 2005