Title 9, Family Law

(a) The clerks of the county courts of the several counties in this state are required to furnish the license upon:(1) Application's being made;(2) Being fully assured that applicants are lawfully entitled to the license; and(3) Receipt of his or her fee. (1) Application's being …

If any county clerk in this state shall issue any license contrary to the provisions of this act, or to any persons who are declared by law as not entitled to the license, he or she shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less tha…

(a) No marriage license shall be issued by the clerks unless a notice of intention to wed shall have been signed by both of the applicants applying for the marriage license and filed with the county clerk where the license is obtained. (b) The notice shall state the name, age, an…

The fee prescribed by law for the issuance of the marriage license shall be paid to the clerk at the time the applicants apply for the marriage license and sign the notice of intention to wed.

It shall be unlawful for any clerk who is authorized to issue marriage licenses to furnish or sell to any person or persons a license to marry at a time when either of the contracting parties is visibly under the influence of intoxicating drinks or under the influence of any kind…

(a) (1) (A) It is the public policy of the State of Arkansas to recognize the marital union only of man and woman.(B) A license shall not be issued to a person to marry another person of the same sex, and no same-sex marriage shall be recognized as entitled to the benefits of mar…

(a) Any person applying for the license to marry another may introduce the parent or guardian of himself or herself or the other party, or the certificate of the parent or guardian duly attested, to prove to the satisfaction of the clerk that the parties to the marriage are of la…

(a) Any person applying for a license under the provisions of this act shall be required to enter into bond to the State of Arkansas in the penal sum of one hundred dollars ($100) for the use of and benefit of the general fund of the county to ensure that the parties applying hav…

(a) (1) Upon written petition being filed with the county clerk of any county in this state, the county court, after hearing, may in its discretion waive by written order the requirement of bond, as prescribed by § 9-11-210, and the consent of parents, as required by §§ 9-11-102 …

(a) If any person shall apply for and obtain a license to marry another, without first obtaining the consent of that party, the person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than one hundred dolla…

(a) For the purpose of being registered and perpetuating the evidence thereof, marriage shall be solemnized only by the following persons:(1) The Governor;(2) Any former justice of the Supreme Court;(3) Any judges of the courts of record within this state, including any former ju…

(a) No minister of the gospel or priest of any religious sect or denomination shall be authorized to solemnize the rites of matrimony in this state until the minister or priest has caused to be recorded his or her license or credentials of his or her clerical character in the off…

(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 app…

(a) Any person who presumes to solemnize marriage in this state contrary to the provisions of this act shall be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500). (b) T…

(a) Any person who fails to officially sign and return any license to the parties at the time of the marriage shall be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500)…

(a) Any person obtaining a license under the provisions of this act shall be required to return the license to the office of the clerk of the county court within sixty (60) days from the date of the license. (b) (1) The bond required by § 9-11-210 shall be deemed null and void if…

If any person authorized to solemnize any marriage in this state shall willfully make a false return of any marriage or pretended marriage to the clerk and recorder, or if the clerk and recorder shall willfully make a false record of any return of a marriage license made to him o…

(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 c…

The books of marriages and clerical credentials to be kept by the respective clerks and recorders and copies duly certified by the clerks and recorders shall be evidence in all the courts in this state.

All marriage contracts whereby any estate, real or personal, is intended to be secured or conveyed to any person, or whereby the estate may be affected in law or equity, shall be in writing acknowledged by each of the contracting parties or proved by one (1) or more subscribing w…

Marriage contracts shall be acknowledged or proven before a court of record, before some judge or clerk of a court of record, or before any former judge of a court of record who served at least four (4) years, of the state in which the contract is made and executed, which acknowl…

(a) Every marriage contract whereby any real estate is conveyed or secured shall be recorded with the certificate of proof or acknowledgment in the office of the clerk and recorder of every county in which any estate intended to be affected or conveyed shall be situated. (b) When…

No marriage contract shall be valid or affect property, except between the parties thereto and those who have actual notice thereof, until it shall be deposited for record with the clerk and recorder of the county where the real estate is situated.

(a) Marriage contracts duly proved or acknowledged, certified, or recorded shall be received as evidence in any court of record of this state, without further proof of their execution. (b) When it shall appear to a court that any marriage contract duly acknowledged or proved and …

(1) “Premarital agreement” means an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and to be effective upon marriage. (2) “Property” means an interest, present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent, in real or personal property, including in…

(a) A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed and acknowledged by both parties. It is enforceable without consideration. (b) As used in this section, “acknowledged” means:(1) A formal declaration or admission before an authorized public officer by the parties who execu…

(a) Parties to a premarital agreement may contract with respect to:(1) the rights and obligations of each of the parties in any of the property of either or both of them whenever and wherever acquired or located;(2) the right to buy, sell, use, transfer, exchange, abandon, lease,…

A premarital agreement becomes effective upon marriage.

After marriage, a premarital agreement may be amended or revoked only by a written agreement signed by the parties. The amended agreement or the revocation is enforceable without consideration.

(a) A premarital agreement is not enforceable if the party against whom enforcement is sought proves that:(1) that party did not execute the agreement voluntarily; or(2) the agreement was unconscionable when it was executed and, before execution of the agreement, that party:(i) w…

If a marriage is determined to be void, an agreement that would otherwise have been a premarital agreement is enforceable only to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result.

Any statute of limitations applicable to an action asserting a claim for relief under a premarital agreement is tolled during the marriage of the parties to the agreement. However, equitable defenses limiting the time for enforcement, including laches and estoppel, are available …

This subchapter shall be applied and construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law with respect to the subject of this act among states enacting it.

This subchapter may be cited as the “Arkansas Premarital Agreement Act”.

If any provision of this subchapter or its application to any person or circumstance be held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this subchapter that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the prov…

This subchapter takes effect July 20, 1987, and applies to any premarital agreement executed on or after that date.

(a) The following acts and parts of acts are repealed:(a) Acts 1981, No. 548.(b) All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this subchapter. (a) Acts 1981, No. 548. (b) All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this subchapter.

The rule that statutes in derogation of the common law shall be strictly construed shall have no application to this section and §§ 9-11-509 — 9-11-514.

(a) A married person may bargain, sell, assign, and transfer his or her separate personal property, carry on any trade or business, and perform any labor or services on his or her sole and separate account. (b) The earnings of any married person from the trade, business, labor, o…

(a) The real and personal property that any married person now owns, or has had conveyed to him or her by any person in good faith and without prejudice to existing creditors, that is acquired as sole and separate property, that comes to him or her by gift, bequest, descent, gran…

In all marriages solemnized after February 1, 1899, neither spouse shall be held to be liable for the antenuptial debts of the other, except by virtue of an express written contract.

The property of any male or female, whether real or personal, and whether acquired before or after marriage in that person's own right, shall not be sold to pay the debts of a spouse contracted for or damages incurred by the spouse before marriage.

No bargain or contract made by any married person, in respect to his or her sole and separate property or any property that may come to him or her by descent, devise, bequest, purchase, or gift or grant of any person, and no bargain or contract entered into by any married person,…

(a) A married person owning any separate personal property may make a schedule of the property and file it in the recorder's office of the county where he or she then lives. (b) The schedule so filed, or a duly certified copy thereof, under the hand and seal of the recorder, shal…

That schedule of a married person's separate property may be in the following form: “STATE | OF | ARKAN- SAS j COUNTY OF .......... Be it known that I, . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., (Wife) (Husband) of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . of the County and State aforesaid, own in my own ri…

(a) Any persons who shall bona fide sell or give any property to a married person may schedule and record the sale or gift as the separate property of the married person, with the same and like effect as though the scheduling and recording had been done by the married person. (b)…