Short Marriage

A marriage of relatively brief duration. There's no fixed statutory definition, but as a rough guide a marriage of under about 5 years is generally treated as short. The length is usually measured from the date of marriage to the date of separation, though where a couple cohabited seamlessly before marrying, the court often treats the whole relationship as one continuous period — so a 2-year marriage preceded by 8 years of cohabitation may be treated as a 10-year relationship. In a short marriage the sharing principle is applied cautiously: the yardstick of equality is a weaker starting point, and the court focuses more on needs and on returning the parties toward the position they were in before the marriage. Non-matrimonial assets — wealth one party brought in, inherited, or received as a gift — are more likely to be kept largely by the party who received them, especially after Standish v Standish. A short, childless marriage where both parties worked and kept their finances largely separate may result in something close to each taking out what they put in, adjusted for needs.