Getting out of the cohabit

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If two people live together for a while — and perhaps share a child — does that give them the same sort of rights as a married couple or civil partners? Most of my readers will know that the law of England and Wales does not recognise so-called common law marriage.

But should it? You have three days left to tell the government whether you think ministers should introduce what a former justice secretary called “some of the biggest reforms to family law in decades”.

As I pointed out in June, David Lammy’s consultation paper on cohabitation had been slipped out with little fanfare on a Friday afternoon earlier that month. Despite my best efforts, new research by the market research company Survation suggests that most people haven’t heard of his plans. Perhaps that’s what the Ministry of Justice was quietly hoping for.

“The fact that some may think they have rights is no justification for taking away the liberty of others,” Baroness Deech DBE KC (hon) said in a House of Lords debate last month. Responding to the government consultation, the cross-bench peer said that reform should support needy people while preserving the equally important principles of consent, personal autonomy and legal certainty.

Deech (pictured) explains her thinking on the latest episode of A Lawyer Talks. My regular podcast interview, as always, is a bonus for paying subscribers to A Lawyer Writes. Everyone else can hear a short taster by clicking the ► symbol on the graphic at the top of this page.