You cannot marry more than one person in the United States. It’s that simple. You can have one marriage, and that’s it. Bigamy is illegal. But what are the legal problems that you will face? That’s a question that some people look into, and are not too sure. Well, the following will show you what very well could await if you decide to try and circumvent the issue. Marrying more than one person is not going to be legal in terms of the law.
What Exactly is Bigamy?
The simplest way to understand this issue is to know what it is. It’s simply a marriage to more than one person, while you’re already married. If you are married right now, and your spouse is not dead or you’re not divorced, marrying someone else becomes illegal. You cannot enter a new marriage until an existing one has been dissolved completely. This differs from polygamy in that you try to get a marriage license, etc. within this route. Bigamy is deceptive, and doesn’t include knowing parties on all sides.
The Punishment
Every state has a different law in the books in regards to penalties. With that in mind, you’re going to find that a minimum of around $500 can be fined to individuals. There are others that can rise upwards of $10,000! Whatever the case may be, each state has a different way of dealing with this issue.
Civil Issues
When a person gets a second marriage, one marriage can end up becoming dissolved. Now, if there are children conceived with the new marriage, under the law, children may have a claim to financial resources, and property from spouses that are part of the second marriage, etc.
Lawyers Defending Bigamy
There are some legal defenses that you may want to consider. However, legal elements require one marriage to end. That’s it. The defense can be ignorance of a previous marriage not being ended with finality, as well as issues with abandonment, etc.
At the end of the day, no one is allowed to have two legal marriages. Polygamy, while still not legal, at least has three or more knowing parties to the process of living, marrying, and conceiving children under marriage elements. Bigamy is not that way, and is illegal all the same. Overall, the consequences of this include financial issues, civil elements, and a disruption in marriage status from one or more relationships. It’s simply illegal, suffice to say.