Common-law marriage is now a thing of the past in the state of Alabama, unless the marriage was recognized before 2017.

A bill that was passed by the legislature last year went into effect Jan 1, 2017, abolishing the age-old practice which allows couples that live together to be recognized as a married couple without actually getting married.

That means couples that want to get married will now have to do so by getting a marriage license and saying their vows.

Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard said because the bill does not nullify previous common-law marriages, he doesn’t expect more people to come through his office to get marriage certificates.

“I don’t foresee a flood of people doing it. Usually the reasons that they don’t get married outweighs their fear of what might come if they don’t,” Ballard said.

He said he has only dealt with a common-law marriage an estimated dozen times during his 10 years as probate judge.

The bill states “No common-law marriage may be entered into in this state on or after January 1, 2017.

An otherwise valid common-law marriage entered into before January 1, 2017, shall be valid in this state.”

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Mike Jones for District 92. It was passed by the House of Representatives March 17, 2016, and by the Senate on May 3, 2016.

According to The Associated Press, Alabama was one of a few states that still recognized common-law marriage.

Circuit Judge Collins Pettaway said doing away with common-law marriage will have some effect on the court system.

“It will affect the kind of cases we hear, in that people who from Jan. 1, 2017 who decided to live together, we will not have divorce actions to deal with separations on those issues,” Pettaway said. “They will have to seek other avenues to go from there.”

Pettaway said judges won’t have to try to determine if a couple was common-law married anymore unless they were established prior to 2017.

“The only benefit would be that the judge hearing the case would not have to struggle with trying to decide those issues,” he said.

Pettaway said common-law marriages don’t come up every day, but they do come up.

“We certainly have more legally documented marriages than we do common-law marriages, but it is not uncommon to have a case where you have to deal with common-law issues,” he said.

“It does come up, but as far as percentage wise, I would say maybe about five- to eight- percent of the cases in divorces may have a common-law marriage issue.”