In a divorce, the judge will have to divide your marital property and debts between the spouses. But can an unmarried couples receive a just and equitable division of property after breaking up?
Under the right circumstances, the answer in Washington is yes. Although property can be divided just like a typical divorce, the CIR doctrine does not permit one person to seek spousal maintenance alimony or an award of attorney fees, as both rights are limited solely to married couples. You will first have to convince the judge that you were in a CIR. There are a number of factors that a judge will use to determine whether two people were in a CIR.
None of these factors are necessarily more significant than any other. In determining whether there is a CIR, it is important to understand that a CIR relationship cannot commence prior to the date the parties begin living together. Every case will be different, and different judges might emphasize one factor over another.
These include but are not limited to the:. This factor makes a commonsense determination of whether you were continuously living together based on your relationship. The longer the relationship, the greater the chance of the judge finding that you were in a CIR.
In one case, a judge found that a CIR existed when the couple lived together and had a sexually intimate relationship for five years, [3] and another judge found that a CIR existed after only three years. For this factor, the judge will look to see if the purpose of the relationship was companionship, support, love, sex, to create a family, or some combination of like things.
