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Family Law

University of Maine School of Law

2023

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Contracts For Cohabitating Romantic Partners, Bailey D. Barnes Apr 2023

Contracts For Cohabitating Romantic Partners, Bailey D. Barnes

Maine Law Review

Marriage rates in the United States are at record lows; meanwhile, more couples are choosing to live together outside of marriage. Despite the changing landscape of romantic relationships, the law of nonmarriage has not kept pace. Rather than having a coherent, majority rule approach, the individual states have employed differing methods of providing for property distribution at the end of a long-term unmarried cohabitation. Unfortunately, absent the formal protections offered by marriage for both parties following a divorce, many cohabitants are at risk of suffering inequitable property distribution following the termination of a cohabitation. This Article proposes that states uniformly …