Source: https://garlandcounty.org/181/Covenant
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 12:24:56+00:00

Document:
If both parties are eighteen (18) years of age or older, we require Legal Identification (Driver's License or government issued ID card), and that they provide their Social Security number to issue a marriage license.
This subchapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Covenant Marriage Act of 2001."
(2) "Judicial separation" means a judicial proceeding pursuant to § 9-11-809 which results in a court determination that the parties to a covenant marriage live separate and apart.
(a)(1) A covenant marriage is a marriage entered into by one (1) male and one (1) female who understand and agree that the marriage between them is a lifelong relationship.
(2) Parties to a covenant marriage will have received authorized counseling emphasizing the nature, purposes, and responsibilities of marriage.
(3) Only when there has been a complete and total breach of the marital covenant commitment may a party seek a declaration that the marriage is no longer legally recognized.
(b)(1) A man and a woman may contract a covenant marriage by declaring their intent to do so on their application for a marriage license as otherwise required under this chapter and executing a declaration of intent to contract a covenant marriage as provided in § 9-11-804.
(2) The application for a marriage license and the declaration of intent shall be filed with the official who issues the marriage license.
"We do solemnly declare that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman who agree to live together as husband and wife for so long as they both may live. We have chosen each other carefully and disclosed to one another everything which could adversely affect the decision to enter into this marriage. We have received authorized counseling on the nature, purposes, and responsibilities of marriage. We have read the Covenant Marriage Act of 2001, and we understand that a covenant marriage is for life. If we experience marital difficulties, we commit ourselves to take all reasonable efforts to preserve our marriage, including marital counseling.
(2)(A) An affidavit by the parties that they have received authorized counseling, which shall include a discussion of the seriousness of covenant marriage, communication of the fact that a covenant marriage is a commitment for life, a discussion of the obligation to seek marital counseling in times of marital difficulties, and a discussion of the exclusive grounds for legally terminating a covenant marriage by divorce.
(B) If one (1) of the parties is a minor, or both are minors, the written consent or authorization of those persons required under this chapter to consent to or authorize the marriage of minors.
(2) The affidavit with the attestation either included within or attached to the document.
(c) The recitation, affidavit, and attestation shall be filed as provided in § 9-11-803(b).
That affiants both read the pamphlet entitled "Covenant Marriage Act" developed and promulgated by the Administrative Office of the Courts, which provides a full explanation of a Covenant Marriage, including the obligation to seek marital counseling in times of marital difficulties and the exclusive grounds for legally terminating a Covenant Marriage by divorce or divorce after a judgment of separation from bed or board.
The undersigned attests that the affiants did receive counseling from me as to the nature and purpose of marriage, which included a discussion of the seriousness of Covenant Marriage, communication of the fact that a Covenant Marriage is for life, and the obligation of a Covenant Marriage to take reasonable efforts to preserve the marriage if marital difficulties arise.
A covenant marriage shall be governed by all of the provisions of this title, except as otherwise specifically provided in this subchapter.
(a) A married couple, upon submission of a copy of its marriage certificate, which need not be certified, may execute a declaration of intent to designate its marriage as a covenant marriage to be governed by this subchapter.
(b) This declaration of intent in the form and containing the contents required by subsection (c) of this section must be filed with the officer who issues marriage licenses in the county in which the couple is domiciled.
(D) The signature of both parties witnessed by a notary.
(ii) The affidavit with the attestation either included within or attached to the document.
(B) The recitation, affidavit, and attestation shall be filed as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(B)(i) If there is a minor child or children of the marriage, the spouses have been living separate and apart continuously without reconciliation for a period of two (2) years and six (6) months from the date the judgment of judicial separation was signed.
(ii) However, if abuse of a child of the marriage or a child of one (1) of the spouses is the basis for which the judgment of judicial separation was obtained, then a judgment of divorce may be obtained if the spouses have been living separate and apart continuously without reconciliation for a period of one (1) year from the date the judgment of judicial separation was signed.
(C) Offer such indignities to the person of the other as shall render his or her condition intolerable.
(5) For causes of action pertaining to spousal support or the support or custody of a child while the spouses are living separate and apart, although not judicially separated.
(B) The ground therefore occurred elsewhere while either or both of the spouses were domiciled elsewhere, provided the person obtaining the judicial separation was domiciled in this state prior to the time the cause of action accrued and is domiciled in this state at the time the action is filed.
(2) An action for a judicial separation in a covenant marriage shall be brought in a county where either party is domiciled, or in the county of the last matrimonial domicile.
(3) The venue provided in this section may not be waived, and a judgment of separation rendered by a court of improper venue is an absolute nullity.
(c) Judgments on the pleadings and summary judgments shall not be granted in any action for judicial separation in a covenant marriage.
(d) In a proceeding for a judicial separation in a covenant marriage or thereafter, a court may award a spouse all incidental relief afforded in a proceeding for divorce, including, but not limited to, spousal support, claims for contributions to education, child custody, visitation rights, child support, injunctive relief, and possession and use of a family residence or joint property.
(a) Judicial separation in a covenant marriage does not dissolve the bond of matrimony since the separated husband and wife are not at liberty to marry again, but it puts an end to their conjugal cohabitation and to the common concerns which existed between them.
(b) Spouses who are judicially separated in a covenant marriage shall retain that status until either reconciliation or divorce.
(a) The Administrative Office of the Courts shall promulgate an informational pamphlet, entitled "Covenant Marriage Act of 2001," which shall outline in sufficient detail the consequences of entering into a covenant marriage.
(b) The informational pamphlet shall be made available to any counselor who provides authorized counseling as provided for by this subchapter.
You are hereby commanded to solemnize the rites and publish the banns of matrimony between A.B., age.......... years, and D.C., age.......... years, according to law, officially sign and return this license to the parties herein named.
I, A.B., do hereby certify that on the.......... day of....................., 20.........., I did duly, and according to law as commanded in the foregoing license, solemnize the rites and publish the banns of matrimony between the parties herein named.
A.B., Justice of the Peace.
"We [insert name of spouse] and [insert name of spouse] declare our intent to contract a Covenant Marriage and accordingly have executed the attached declaration of intent."
(a) When marriages are solemnized by a minister of the gospel or priest, the ceremony shall be according to the forms and customs of the church or society to which he or she belongs. When solemnized by a civil officer, the form observed shall be the one the officer deems most appropriate.
(b) It shall be lawful for religious societies who reject formal ceremonies to join together in marriage persons who are members of the society according to the forms, customs, or rites of the society to which they belong, with the exception that the requirements set forth in the Covenant Marriage Act of 2001, § 9-11-801 et seq., shall be complied with if the parties enter into a covenant marriage.
(a) Upon the return of any license officially signed as having been executed and that the parties therein named have been duly and according to law joined in marriage, the clerk issuing the license shall make a record thereof in the marriage record in his or her office.
(b) The clerk shall immediately make out a certificate of the record, giving the names, date, book, and page, together with the name of the county and state, and attach the certificate to the license and return the license to the party presenting it.
(c) The certificate shall be signed officially by the clerk and sealed with the county seal.
(d) The circuit clerks in counties having two (2) judicial districts shall keep a record at the county site of each district in which marriage licenses shall be recorded.
(e)(1) If a license has been returned and recorded by the clerk that contains clerical or scrivener's errors, the licensee may submit proof of the error to the circuit court in an ex parte proceeding.
(2) The court, upon a finding of error, shall order the county clerk to correct the errors on the license.
(3) The licensee shall not be charged a fee for filing a request to correct clerical or scrivener's errors.
(f) On the face of the certificate shall appear the certification to the fact of marriage, including, if applicable, a designation that the parties entered into a covenant marriage signed by the parties to the marriage and the witnesses, and the signature and title of the officiant.
(a) A plaintiff who is seeking to dissolve and set aside a covenant marriage shall state in his or her petition for divorce that he or she is seeking to dissolve a covenant marriage as authorized under the Covenant Marriage Act of 2001, § 9-11-801 et seq.
(7) Where either spouse legally obligated to support the other, and having the ability to provide the other with the common necessaries of life, willfully fails to do so.
Text of section enacted by Acts of 2005, Act 1890, § 2, eff. August 12, 2005. See also version enacted by Acts of 2005, Act 182, § 1, eff. August 12, 2005, ante.
In all divorce decrees that dissolve a covenant marriage created under the Covenant Marriage Act of 2001, § 9-11-801 et seq., the court shall enter a finding that the marriage being dissolved is a covenant marriage.

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