Generally family lawyers regard marriages of ten years or more as ‘long’ and marriages of less than six years as ‘short’. However, there are no strict rules and sometimes just looking at dates does not give us the full picture and we will consider other factors.

 

Many couples choose to live together before they marry.  This means that only taking account of the relationship from date of the marriage will give a distorted view about the length of the relationship. For this reason, when sorting out finances on divorce, when cohabitation ‘moves seamlessly into marriage’ this will be regarded as part of the duration of the relationship.

 

If you are not sure where you stand and need some advice, it is worth speaking to a specialist family solicitor.