Ruling on marriage called 'real shocker'
By Charlie Brennan,
Rocky Mountain News
June 16, 2006

A common-law marriage in Colorado between a 14-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl is possible in the wake of an appellate court ruling Thursday.

That's the potential fallout from a Colorado Court of Appeals decision that overturned a lower court finding that 15 is too young for a girl to enter into common-law union.

"This is a real shocker," said Stephen Harhai, a Denver attorney and past chairman of the family law section of the Colorado Bar Association. "Under this action, this means your 12-year-old can, with whomever, say, 'I intend to be married to you,' and that's it, (they're) married. That's a little shocking."

The decision by a three-judge panel reversed a Weld County case in which a judge ruled that a 15- year-old girl was too young to consent to a common-law marriage.

It does not affect state law regarding "statutory" or conventional marriage in Colorado, which sets the minimum marriage age at 16 and requires either parental or judicial approval for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds. the rest