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Does A Person In A Polygamous Relationship Have Any Rights During A Breakup?

24 November 2015 by Kenneth Pierce

Although polygamous relationships are not very common in the United States, there are people who prefer to be in committed relationships with multiple partners. While this can provide a lot of comfort and satisfaction to the parties involved, a person's legal rights to money and property accumulated in the relationship may be severely limited depending on state laws and the individual's standing in the affair. If you are considering leaving a polygamous partnering, here's a realistic look at how things may work out for you.

Child Support

The one area where your rights are guaranteed is child support. Regardless of whether you were legally married to the child's co-parent or simply cohabitated, you are entitled to child support payments from the person.

However, even though there may have been more than two people involved in the relationship, the person who actually sired or gave birth to the child may be the only person required to pay support. For example, a woman involved in a polygamous relationship with a man and another woman would only get child support from the man if he fathered the child. In general, the only way the court would order both the man and the second woman to pay the support order is if they weren't married, were the biological parents of the child, and the woman who separated from them was awarded custody of the child by the court.

Be aware that any support order will be based on the person's assets, income, and the number of other children the individual may have. So you may not be awarded as much as you were expecting if the person is legally responsible for other kids.

Property Division

You are more likely to be awarded some of the shared property if you are legally married to one of the other people in the relationship. In this case, the laws regulating the distribution of marital property would apply when you filed for divorce from the individual. However, that law would only pertain to property you owned or purchased with your spouse.

For property you owned with the other party who you were not married to, you would likely need to file a separate lawsuit against the person, and the court would make the decision based on regular property laws. This scenario would also apply if no one was legally married to anyone in the affair.

Things can get really messy if everyone in the relationship contributed money towards the property through the use of comingled funds. You may be awarded the property but ordered to pay the other people the value of their contributions. For instance, if there were three people in the relationship and each paid $2,000 towards a $6,000 car, the court may give you the car but order you to pay the other two people their portion of the depreciated value of the vehicle. Conversely, the court may allow the other two people to keep the property but make them pay you money that represents your share.

Legally detangling a polygamous relationship can be very challenging. It's a good idea to discuss this complex issue with an attorney, like the ones at Erickson Law Office, who can help guide you towards the best course of action to take to obtain the outcome you desire.

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