Legal Question in Family Law in Kansas

Re: bigamy

A marriage that is undertaken when one of the spouses is already married is void. It may also constitute bigamy, although reasonable mistake or misrepresentation is a defense:

Kansas law provides:

21-3601. Bigamy. (a) Bigamy is any of the following:

(1) Marriage within this state by any person who shall have another spouse living at the time of such marriage;

(2) marriage within this state by an unmarried person to a person known to such unmarried person to be the spouse of some other person;

(3) cohabitation within this state after marriage in another state or country under circumstances described in subsection (a)(1) or (a)(2).

(b) It shall be a defense to a charge of bigamy that the accused reasonably believed the prior marriage had been dissolved by death, divorce or annulment.

(c) Bigamy is a severity level 10, nonperson felony.