Under Oklahoma Law, You Have to Wait at Least Six Months to Remarry After Your Oklahoma Divorce Decree Is Finalized
Video Transcribed:
How long do I have to wait to remarry in the state of Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa attorney, James Wirth, I’m answering frequently asked Oklahoma family law questions today. So that’s the question. After a divorce of dissolution of a marriage, how long do I have to wait before I remarried?
Under Oklahoma law, you have to wait at least six months to remarry after your Oklahoma divorce decree is finalized. So what the law says is if you get married within that six month period, so six months has not passed yet, then there’s two issues. One, the new marriage is going to be voidable.
The party could file, or you could file to have it annulled because it is a voidable marriage.
Now that issue cures itself, if you continue to act as though you’re in the marriage and reside together, once that six month waiting period has passed, then that voidable marriage becomes a legit marriage after that six months.
But the other thing is, if you marry in Oklahoma during that six month period, it’s not just that the marriage is voidable, it’s also a crime.
It’s defined as bigamy under Oklahoma law and it is a felony and you could be prosecuted for it. So you obviously want to avoid that.
In practice I’ve never seen anybody prosecuted for that and I’ve had lots of calls of people concerned that these things are going on, haven’t seen any prosecutor pick it up yet.
The other thing is that Oklahoma can control what you do in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has very little control on what you do outside of Oklahoma. So there’s nothing under Oklahoma law that says you can’t go get married out of state because we don’t have control over that.
So if you get divorced in Oklahoma and you’re within the six month waiting period, I have had many clients and many people I’ve talked to that have gone out of state to get married. That part is perfectly legal.
Now is that marriage voidable in Oklahoma? No, we have to give full faith and credit to the other state’s marriage. So it is not going to be voidable, it is going to be a valid marriage in Oklahoma.
But Oklahoma did do in the statutes, what they can do to an extent, which they said, if you get divorced in Oklahoma, you marry somebody else in another state and then you come back to Oklahoma and reside together with that person.
Well, we’re going to include that within the definition of bigamy as well and you can be charged with a felony for residing together when you were divorced less than six months ago in Oklahoma.
Now, again, I’ve never seen that prosecuted, not sure if it ever has been prosecuted. I’ve had a lot of cases where people have talked about it.
A lot of people complaining, never seen it filed, and there may be some concerns that you may not be quite giving full faith and credit to that out-of-state marriage, if you’re prosecuting them for residing together. But those issues aside better play it safe follow Oklahoma law, wait the six months to get married.
Any questions about your specific circumstances, talk to a Tulsa Family Law attorney about those, you can talk to somebody in my office by going to makelaweasy.com.
