Not Married, And It Matters

Eleven years together, a hospital corridor, and a list that does not name you

Eleven years in the same house, the same name on the post, everyone calls you a couple. Somebody asks whether you are married.

Whether a particular relationship formed a valid common law marriage under another state's elements, cohabitation agreements, jointly held property, beneficiary designations, anatomical gifts and prepaid funeral contracts are not walked here. Nothing on this page says whether a particular document was validly executed or who holds a right in a particular family.

A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.

Words this turns on

Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.

35 words

AccrualThe moment a claim became suable, which is the date every limitations period counts from. Six years on a written contract means six years from accrual, not six years from the agreement.
Acknowledgment of paternityThe affidavit a man signs to acknowledge that he is a child's natural father. Once it becomes final it is a final and enforceable determination of paternity rather than a presumption, and the form carries that warning in boldface at the top.
Attorney in factThe person a power of attorney names to act for somebody else. Under a durable power of attorney for health care, that is who decides about treatment when the principal cannot.
Civil forfeitureIn the open meetings section, a fixed sum a court orders a public body to pay to the party who obtained an injunction against it. Five hundred dollars, alongside court costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
Confirmation of saleThe court order approving a sheriff's sale. It is a separate event from the sale itself, and it is the point at which a foreclosed property stops being redeemable.
DeficiencyWhat is still owed after collateral has been sold and the proceeds applied. A car sold at auction almost never covers the loan, and the shortfall is pursued afterwards as its own debt.
DissolutionOne of the two ways Ohio ends a marriage. Both spouses file a petition together with a separation agreement, and not less than thirty nor more than ninety days later both appear and acknowledge under oath that they entered it voluntarily.
Equitable sharesThe basis on which adjoining owners maintain an existing partition fence. What is equitable depends on the circumstances rather than being fixed.
Executive sessionThe one lawful way a public body closes a meeting. It takes a roll call vote of a majority of a quorum, at a regular or special meeting, for the sole purpose of considering matters the section lists, and the motion has to state which listed purpose it is for.
Habitual truantA child absent without legitimate excuse for thirty or more consecutive hours, forty two or more hours in a school month, or seventy two or more hours in a school year.
HarborerSomebody who shelters, protects or exercises control over a dog. The dog bite section makes an owner, a keeper and a harborer liable, and only the first of those three owns the animal.
Home solicitation saleA sale of consumer goods or services where the seller personally solicits at the buyer's residence and the agreement is given there, or where the buyer's agreement is made at a place other than the seller's place of business. It is the category the three day right to cancel attaches to.
IncompatibilityThe most used ground for divorce in Ohio, and the only one on the list that the other spouse can remove by denying it.
IntestateDying without a valid will, so an estate is divided by the statute instead of by the person's own instructions.
Judgment proofA description of a person whose income and property all sit inside the exemptions, so a judgment against them reaches nothing. It is a fact about what is collectible, not a status anybody is granted.
Legal disabilityA legal incapacity that stops a person acting for themselves, such as being a minor or being subject to a guardianship. The age of majority section grants full age to a person of eighteen who is under no legal disability.
Liquidated damagesA figure fixed in advance by statute or contract rather than proved after the fact. On unpaid wages it is six per cent of the amount unpaid or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater.
NonconformityIn the new motor vehicle law, the failure of a vehicle to conform to the express warranty. It is what the manufacturer has a duty to repair, and it is what a reasonable number of unsuccessful attempts is counted against.
Per stirpesA way of dividing an estate where a deceased person's share passes down their own line rather than being shared out among the survivors at that level.
Personal representativeIn the medical records section, a person authorised to act for the patient, who may make the written request to examine or copy the record alongside the patient and an authorised person.
Provisional ballotA ballot cast at the polling place by somebody whose eligibility is in question, sealed with a written affirmation and decided by the board afterwards. Anybody eligible to cast one is permitted to, and an official at the polling place is the one who says so.
Public recordA record kept by a public office that the office makes available for inspection promptly and copies at cost, unless a statute exempts it. Everybody is a requester on the same terms, and nobody has to explain why they want one.
RedemptionRecovering property before a sale is finalised by paying what the law requires, which in a foreclosure is the judgment, the costs, poundage and interest.
ReinstatementThe right of somebody who fell behind on a rental purchase agreement to put the original agreement back without losing any rights or options already acquired, where the property was surrendered when requested.
Release from administrationA probate court order letting a small estate skip full administration. The ceiling is thirty five thousand dollars in assets, or one hundred thousand where a valid will left all of them to a person named in it as the surviving spouse who survives.
Rent escrowDepositing rent with the clerk of court instead of with the landlord, where the landlord has not met the obligations the chapter sets, so the money is held until the condition is dealt with.
Right of dispositionThe right to direct what happens to a person's body after death. An adult of sound mind may assign it in a written declaration, and where there is none it passes down a statutory order beginning with a representative the deceased person appointed and then the surviving spouse.
School dayThe unit Ohio measures school discipline in. A suspension runs for not more than ten school days, and an expulsion for not more than the greater of eighty school days or the school days remaining in the semester or term.
Shelter careWhere a child is placed after being taken into custody. A hearing on whether it is required is held promptly and not later than seventy two hours after the placement.
SolemnisedA marriage performed by a person the marriage chapter authorises to do it. Since the tenth of October 1991 a marriage may occur in Ohio only if it is solemnised that way and otherwise complies with that chapter.
Statutory damagesAn amount a statute fixes rather than one a person proves. Under the public records section it is one hundred dollars for each business day of the failure, up to one thousand dollars, and the injury is presumed rather than shown.
Treble damagesThree times the actual economic damages, available in a consumer case where the practice was already declared unlawful before the transaction.
Unruly childA category a juvenile court adjudicates, defined to include a child who does not submit to the reasonable control of a parent, teacher, guardian or custodian by reason of being wayward or habitually disobedient, a habitual truant, and a child whose behaviour endangers health or morals.
Without provocationThe opening words of all three dog designations. A dog has to have done what the definition describes without having been provoked into it, so provocation is not a mitigating detail added afterwards: it is part of the thing that has to be proved.
WorkweekThe unit overtime is measured in. Hours worked in excess of forty hours in one workweek carry one and one half times the wage rate, and the count starts again the following week.