Common-law investigations case studies

Common-law investigations Case study A

A man approached us and told us that his good friend, who is divorced, died suddenly from a heart attack and left behind an apartment in a very expensive area which is worth a lot of money.

According to him, his friend had a “casual” girlfriend who had her own apartment but as she learned of the news, hurried to set facts on the group, moved into that said apartment and claimed that she was his common-law spouse.

The deceased had two minor children, which resided with their mother, but through a custody agreement lived with the deceased for a couple of days during the week and during alternating weekends.

There was no reason to deny them their inheritance from their father.

Our investigation found out that the deceased and the girlfriend did not share a common household, a common bank account, and other than a the time they spent together, which included a few trips abroad, did not give the girlfriend any legal status as the deceased “common-law spouse”.

The apartment in question was transferred to the minor children through an trustee, until they reach legal age.

Common-law investigations Case study B

A woman approached us and claimed that her partner passed away and she was his “common-law spouse”.

She asked us to gather evidence in order to prove that.

While questioning the neighbors we found the exact opposite: They claimed that this woman practiced the oldest profession in the world and that is how she came to know the deceased. They did not live together and other than the occasional meetings, she did not have any of the criteria to be called his “common-law spouse”.

We also located a former address that the deceased lived in and found no evidence to strengthen the claim of our client.

Despite this being our customer who paid us in full, we informed her that we did not acquire any evidence to substantiate her claims – but on the contrary!