UK marriage legal question… for a fic, of course.

[ravenna_c_tan]

Okay, so I’m working on some various plots and things for upcoming fic, both pro and fan, and I have a question for the Brits and Brit-pickers out there about a story idea.

Can you be married to someone in the UK and not know it? The idea came from a news report that Janeane Garofolo apparently went through what she thought was a fake wedding just for fun in Las Vegas once, and recently learned holy crap, it was actually a legal marriage. (Link to story about it in USA Today: here — and here’s one about whether they have to file amended taxes at the married rate {No, apparently.})

Rather than try to create some excuse to get characters in the Potterverse to Las Vegas, I was wondering if anything like that could happen in the UK? Wikipedia says for a marriage in the UK to be binding, the participants, the celebrant, and witnesses must sign a document… but that’s Wikipedia, and the question I’m actually asking is… what if one of the participants is tricked into signing, i.e. didn’t think it was real? Or it was part of a performance?

Thoughts welcome. This plot bunny isn’t sure where it wants to go exactly…

Archived at Ravenna's Quill.

Comments

[angelbabe_cj]

From what I know (which isn't much detail) that document is indeed required to be signed by the three sets of people. Two witnesses are required. I believe civil partnership has the same requirements.

I don't see that it's completely out of the question that someone could be tricked into signing it but I think there's some official wording required for marriages too. If it was part of a performance? Might work. Although if they had proof of this afterwards I imagine it's grounds for divorce.

[dracavia]

I can't speak for any of the UK outside Scotland, since our rules up here often vary from the rest, but in my personal experience it'd be pretty hard to get accidentally married. There's a (short) residency requirement in the region in which you intend to marry/civil partner, then you have to go register your intent to marry/partner, so that they can confirm you aren't already married somewhere else and it's published so that people can lodge protests to your union in advance. It's about 2 weeks (or longer depending on scheduling) after that that you can officially get married, and there's 5 people required. The couple, the witnesses and the registrar.

About the only way I can think of for a couple to be accidentally married without realising it is if someone(s) to intentionally set them up for it (which would require a lot of very careful work), and if that was proved later it would be grounds to annul.

[queenbarwench]

Yup, Wikipedia is right. That piece of paper *is* the marriage; you can mostly put whatever ceremony you like around it (although I think the words that go with the ring-exchange are required), but the paper is what makes it legal.

Although it's not just any celebrant that can sign. It either has to be a Registrar or an official of a state-recognised religion. Given that these people tend to take their jobs very seriously, I'm not sure how anyone could accidentally get married in a fake ceremony. Not without a defence of diminished responsibility (mental impairment) or coercion (a criminal offence).

[fluffyllama]

Confirming what dracavia said is much the same for England and Wales. You are interviewed in person by appointment when you go to register your intent to marry, with passport or birth certificates needed to prove identity, and asked for details of your parents as well. Then you book a place and time for the ceremony where you sign the actual legal marriage part.

Someone would have to set it up very carefully and break a lot of laws doing so if they wanted to trick someone into a real ceremony that seemed fake, including having someone impersonate them for the intent to marry interview. Without that you'd never be able to book someone to perform a legal marriage ceremony.

Most local councils have their own sites with localised info on, but the CAB may have the most straightforward info on it if you want to look for anything specific here.

[ravenna_c_tan]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the grounds for divorce part just yet... Ah plot devices, so tricky.

[ravenna_c_tan]

Amusingly, someone else just pointed me at a news article about Sophia Loren, and how an ex-boyfriend of hers got someone to impersonate her and sign a marriage license! So that might be a direction I'll go. Not sure.

Raises the question in the wizarding world if someone who is Polyjuiced signs the marriage license... Maybe their wand has to be certified as theirs? You'd think JKR would've done more with ID stuff... except that would have made her plot devices involving Polyjuice so much more difficult, I guess. Sigh.

[ravenna_c_tan]

Well, presumably the registrar could be Imperiused, and then a memory charm, so that later nothing seemed amiss? Hmmm...

[ravenna_c_tan]

Thanks for the link! It being a fic, breaking a lot of laws is probably all right, depending on where I end up going with it... But we shall see. *ponders some more*

[angelbabe_cj]

Indeed. They never quite work out how you want them to.

[dracavia]

Well there we go!

I always got the impression that wands were the main form of ID in JKR's wizarding world. There is mention of the license for aparating, but I never got the imrpession that really came with an ID the way muggle driver's license does.

[ravenna_c_tan]

Now that I think about it, that might have been another reason for the Death Eaters to hold Ollivander. Since presumably he's one of the only ones who actually can ID everyone by wand. Hmm.

[dracavia]

Or be forced to somehow forge a wand's ID possibly?