LIVING TOGETHER: A Guide to the Law for Unmarried Couples

It's much more practical from a legal point of view to be married than to live in consortium, says the lawyer/author of this breezily written--and worthwhile--look at the hassles confronted by people who choose to live together without a license. In many states, one's sex life is still illegal. Consortium is risky for fathers, who have no legal rights to their children, except in matters of support. People who live together cannot adopt, though they could if each lived alone. Army and insurance benefits don't transfer to a consort. The legal risk to reward ratio is stacked on the side of risk by a nervous Government anxious to preserve order along matrimonial lines. But since common practice is leaning more toward commonlaw arrangement every day, then it's good to know what the situation, is.