Can a Non-Vermont Resident Dissolve a Civil Union?
Beth Robinson, an attorney at Langrock, Sperry & Wool in Middlebury, Vt. Oct. 7, 2002
Q: Dear Beth,
My former partner and I participated in a civil union in Vermont in July 2000. At the time, we had been together for 11 years and lived in Virginia.
We recently broke up and I would like to terminate that civil union, as I may want to have a future relationship and legally recognize that person as my partner. I still live in Virginia. What should I do?
Thank you.
T.J.
A: Dear T.J.,
I'm so sorry to hear about your breakup.
You're in a tough spot at this point. If you were legally married to your former partner, you would go to your local court and ask for a divorce. Because a civil union is a marriage-like legal familial relationship that may also need to be severed if things don't work out, we believe that your own state courts should grant you a dissolution and deal with property and support issues.
However, not all courts will agree with us on this. In fact, a same-sex couple in Connecticut in a similar situation was turned away by their state court, which said it didn't have the authority to dissolve a civil union. That case is now on appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court. The only way to find out for sure whether your own state court is required to grant you a dissolution is to go to court. For several reasons, that may be a very bad idea. Because this is a new frontier in the law, you probably don't want to be involved in an ill-advised test case that is likely to create bad precedent for a wide range of other cases. Before going to court, then, you should consult with a local attorney familiar with your own state's laws, and a major GLBT legal advocacy organization, such as one listed below, for their advice.
- Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston
- National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco
- Lambda Legal in New York and other cities
- ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project in New York and other cities
If you can't go to court in your own state, or you decide not to, you can always dissolve your civil union in Vermont. However, in order to dissolve a marriage or civil union in Vermont, one of the parties to the couple must live in Vermont for six months before filing the divorce papers and then a total of a year before the court will grant the final dissolution, which may be impractical for you.
Even if you can't practically dissolve your civil union right away, there are steps you can take to protect yourself. If you and your former partner can amicably disentangle your finances (and I strongly recommend mediation to help you with this), then you should sign a separation agreement to officially separate your finances. This will also minimize the chances that either of you can, in the future, use the civil union to impose further legal obligations on the other.
You should talk to a local lawyer familiar with family law, inheritance law and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender legal issues for advice about a separation agreement. If you aren't able to sort things out, even with mediation, you may be able to go to court to resolve your property issues, without necessarily dissolving your civil union.
I'm sorry you're in this difficult situation. Vermont's civil union law won't long be the only one of its kind, and it's just a matter of time before the laws and courts of every state recognize our relationships, and protect us when those relationships end.