Cohabitation remains a growing trend in the United States. According to the most recent U.S. Census (2010), cohabitating couples form approximately 7.5 million of the country’s households, a 5 percent increase from 2009. That number is likely even greater today. New Jersey is not immune to this trend. In fact, the 2010 U.S. Census shows that approximately 5.2 percent of New Jersey’s households consist of cohabitating couples; defined as those living together in a romantic relationship absent marriage, civil union or the like.
Attorneys whose practices emphasize family law should recognize that in today’s society, a growing number of romantic relationships exist outside legal definition. Because New Jersey ceased recognizing common-law marriages in 1939, palimony has often been the best redress available to those couples whose marital-type relationships exist outside a written cohabitation agreement or official licensure of the state. At the same time that the number of candidates eligible for palimony is expanding, New Jersey palimony law is in a state of flux.
