Opportunity for a one-time family benefit for the common-law wife of a fallen soldier

Publication date: March 11, 2024

The situation in Svitlana*, a resident of Chernivtsi oblast, approached Nataliia Horvasiuk, a paralegal at the Ukrainian Paralegal Association, but it was not easy. The woman asked for help in obtaining a one-time family allowance in connection with the death of her fallen soldier.

Svitlana said that she and her husband lived in a civil union but were not officially married. They had a child together a year and a half ago. The couple also raised three other children from Svitlana’s first marriage.

The deceased man’s ex-wife and his two minor children from his first marriage also claimed the same benefits. Svitlana added that a divorce certificate and other documents confirmed the divorce.

– The problem in this case was the unrecognized fact of cohabitation. At the same time, the woman told us that she had contacted the military unit where the deceased served and a local lawyer. But he refused to help the woman, arguing that the case was a lost cause, the paralegal said.

However, after studying the situation, Nataliia Horvasiuk concluded that the client’s case was possible. She advised her to have the fact of cohabitation recognized by the court so that Svitlana, as the mother of a child with the deceased father, could also claim a share of the lump-sum payment. The paralegal also explained what documents were needed to obtain free legal services and file a lawsuit to resolve the problem of unrecognized cohabitation.

*Name changed for ethical reasons.

The material was created with the support of the international charity platform GlobalGiving and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The publication’s content is solely the responsibility of the Legal Development Network.

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