Is There Still Common Law

In Texas there is common law. You don't have to be together for a certain amount of time. As long as you present yourself as husband and wife to anyone....you are common law married. To make it official (if your friend is wanting to, and a lot of insurance companies will request this before adding a spouse) I would go to the marriage lisence office and tell them you want a certificate for common law marriage. My husband and I did this since we didn't have the money to get married. On the certificate, it will ask you on what date did you start referring to eachother as being spouses.

Yep, I deal with this issue all the time in my job, and the ladies who said there is no minimum time limit got it right..it is about presenting as married couples and cohabitating. In addition..anytime you live with someone, regardless of relationship Texas is a community property state..so roommates, family, live-in significant others all become joint owners of all property inside the house as soon as residency is established, which can be as simple as one person giving the address as their home address on paperwork or getting mail there...so beware who you invite to live with you, your stuff becomes there stuff too if things go bad! then you might get stuck having to try and settle it in civil court, or trying to go through a formal eviction to get them to leave.

According to Wikipedia, "Common-law marriage [in Texas] is known as an "informal marriage", which can be established either by declaration (registering at the county courthouse without having a ceremony)[13], or by meeting a 3-prong test showing evidence of (1) an agreement to be married; (2) cohabitation in Texas; and (3) representation to others that the parties are married. In the actual wording of the law there is no specification on the length of time that a couple must cohabitate to meet the second requirement of the 3-prong test. Under Texas law there is no required period of time of cohabitation and an informal marriage can occur if the couple lives together one day if the other elements, (an agreement to be married and holding out as married to the public) have also occurred. Likewise a couple can live together for 50 years and if they never have an agreement to be married, or hold themselves out to the public as married, their 50 year cohabitation will not make them informally married. If a couple does not commence a proceeding to prove their relationship was a marriage within two years of the end of their cohabitation and relationship there is a legal presumption that they were never informally married, but this presumption is rebuttable. In other words, even after two years a party to the relationship, or another interested party such as their estate, can seek to establish the marriage if they can overcome the presumption. Because this rule is only a presumption, and not a statute of limitations, a person in Texas that could be informally married should always go through a divorce proceeding when the relationship ceases or face possible serious legal repercussions."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage_in_the_U...

yep, i live in tx and am common law married. you techinically have to live together 6 months, and present yourself as husband and wife (like we do on our health insurance and auto insurance, etc). it's actually pretty cool. i don't think many other states do it, but they honour it if you're from a state that does it.

It varies depending on the state you are in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage_in_the_U...
"Common-law marriage can still be contracted in eleven states (Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire (posthumously), Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah) and in the District of Columbia."

yes there is still common law in texas you have to live togther for 6 months and if you decied to separate you have to get a divorce.

Texas does. at one time i think my mom told me it was either 3 months or 6 months of living together.South Dakota and North Dakota to my knowledge does not believe in it nor do they recognize it from other states.