Washington doesn’t have common law marriage. What it has instead is a court-made rule called the committed intimate relationship, or CIR, which lets a judge divide the property an unmarried couple built together. This post is part of a series on how that rule works. It answers one question: whether you can get spousal maintenance or attorney fees when a CIR ends.
No maintenance after a committed intimate relationship ends, and mostly no fees. Spousal maintenance comes from the divorce statute and requires a marriage or registered domestic partnership, so a court can’t order your former partner to support you after a CIR ends. The divorce statute that lets a court make the richer spouse pay the other’s attorney fees doesn’t apply either. A court can still award fees on narrower grounds: a written agreement, sanctions for bad-faith litigation, a fee statute in a probate-connected case, or the parentage statute if you have children together. But the basic rule is that each partner pays their own lawyer, and there’s no first-hearing support order to help you do it.
Why there’s no spousal maintenance after a committed intimate relationship
Maintenance (what other states call alimony) comes from RCW 26.09.090, which lets a court order maintenance “for either spouse or either domestic partner.” A CIR partner is neither. The whole doctrine exists because the parties weren’t married, and the courts have applied the divorce statutes to CIR cases only by analogy, for dividing property. Western Community Bank v. Helmer, 48 Wn. App. 694, 699 (1987). Nobody has extended the analogy to support payments, and the Supreme Court has said the “marital-like” label is “a mere analogy,” not a basis for treating the couple as married. Vasquez v. Hawthorne, 145 Wn.2d 103, 107 (2001).
Trial courts apply this without much discussion. In an unpublished 2026 Division I decision, In re Domestic Partnership of Cartwright and Peters, the trial court denied spousal maintenance after a 20-year relationship “since it was a CIR, not a marriage.” That ruling stood on appeal.
What a CIR partner gets instead is a share of the property acquired during the relationship. If one partner earned far more than the other for 20 years, the property division can account for that, because the higher earner’s wages were community-like property while the relationship lasted. But once the court divides the property, the obligation ends. There’s no monthly check.
Why the divorce fee statute doesn’t apply
In a divorce, RCW 26.09.140 lets the court order one spouse to pay the other’s attorney fees “after considering the financial resources of both parties.” It’s the reason a spouse with no income can hire a lawyer. It doesn’t apply to a CIR case. Division III held so in Helmer: the property statute reaches a CIR only by analogy, so the fee statute doesn’t follow, and “it is for the Legislature to change or amend the statute.” 48 Wn. App. at 699. Division I agreed in Foster v. Thilges, 61 Wn. App. 880, 887 (1991). Division III reversed a need-and-ability fee award in In re Kelly, 170 Wn. App. 722, 740-41 (2012), because a CIR action isn’t a dissolution proceeding. And Division I, which hears Snohomish and Island County appeals, reaffirmed the rule in October 2025 in an unpublished decision, In re Marriage of Coluccio and Khanlarova.
The Legislature hasn’t changed the statute in the almost 40 years since Helmer. So plan on paying your own lawyer. At our firm the advance fee deposit for a contested case is generally $10,000 to $15,000. Unlike a divorce, there’s no motion you can file at the start of a CIR case to make the other side cover it.
What can still support a fee award
A written agreement. If the two of you signed a cohabitation agreement or a property agreement with a fee clause, the court can enforce it like any contract.
Sanctions and intransigence
Sanctions. The court can order a party who files frivolous pleadings or litigates in bad faith to pay the other side’s fees under CR 11 and under the court’s authority to sanction intransigence. Intransigence means conduct that makes the case more expensive than it should be: ignoring discovery, refusing to follow court orders, filing motions to run up the other side’s bill. In an unpublished 2025 Division I decision, Engelhart v. Hansen, the court affirmed a $50,000 intransigence award in a parenting case between former CIR partners (the property claim itself had settled before trial). In another unpublished 2025 decision, Gonzales v. Camp, the court allocated a loan to the partner who’d acted in bad faith. Sanctions depend on the other side’s conduct, so you can’t count on them when you budget the case.
Probate and parentage cases
The probate fee statute. If your partner has died and you’re litigating the CIR claim in the probate case, the court has broad discretion to award fees under RCW 11.96A.150. In In re Estate of Franks (Wash. Ct. App. Div. II, Feb. 3, 2026), the court awarded fees to the estate under that statute in a CIR-related dispute.
The parentage statute, if you have children. This is the one that matters most often. If you and your former partner have children together, the court decides the parenting plan and child support in a parentage action, and RCW 26.26B.060 lets the court award fees in that action. The fee statute for the property side still doesn’t apply. So your lawyer will keep the time spent on the parenting case separate from the time spent on the property case, and ask for fees on the parenting side only. Our post on how the property case fits with the parenting case explains how the two run together.
No temporary support while the case is pending
In a divorce, the first hearing is temporary orders. The court decides who pays what while the case is pending, who stays in the house, and often orders one spouse to pay the other’s fees. That comes from RCW 26.09.060, a divorce statute, and it doesn’t apply to a CIR case. There’s no basis for an order that your former partner support you or advance your fees while a CIR case is pending. The case is a civil equity action, and the main event is trial.
What does exist in Snohomish and Island Counties is the automatic temporary order. The court issues it the day you file a CIR case, the same as in a divorce. SCLSPR 94.04(b); Island County LSPR 94(a), (b). It restrains both partners from transferring or hiding property except in the usual course of business, for the necessities of life, or by written agreement. It also covers insurance, new debts, and access to records. It doesn’t order anyone to pay anyone. King County’s rule, LFLR 4(h), issues the automatic order only in divorce, legal separation, and invalidity cases, so a King County CIR case starts with no restraint at all. Anything beyond the automatic order is an injunction under CR 65, on the general civil standard.
What this means for planning the case
Budget for your own fees from the start, and be realistic about what’s at stake. A CIR case is worth bringing when the community-like property is worth substantially more than the cost of proving the relationship and dividing it. It’s a hard case to justify when the property is modest and your former partner is going to fight the existence of the relationship at every step. A good lawyer will tell you which one you have at the first meeting. Settlement is often the right answer. Unlike a divorce, though, there’s no fee-shifting risk pushing the other side to the table, so you have to make the case for settling on the merits.
Two things you can do now
Look for anything in writing. A cohabitation agreement, a property agreement, an email where the two of you agreed how things would be split. If it has a fee clause, that’s your fee route. If it doesn’t, it still matters for the property division.
Keep a record of the other side’s conduct. Missed deadlines, ignored requests for documents, property moved after the case was filed. That’s the evidence that supports an intransigence award.
Common questions
Can I get alimony after a committed intimate relationship in Washington? No. Spousal maintenance comes from the divorce statute and requires a marriage or registered domestic partnership. The court can divide the property you acquired together, but it can’t order ongoing support.
Can the court make my former partner pay my attorney fees in a CIR case? Not under the divorce fee statute, which doesn’t apply. Fees can be awarded under a written agreement, as a sanction for bad-faith conduct, under the probate fee statute if a partner has died, or under the parentage statute for the parenting side of the case if you have children.
Is there a temporary orders hearing in a committed intimate relationship case? Not the kind a divorce has. There’s no basis for a temporary support or fee order. In Snohomish and Island Counties an automatic order restraining property transfers issues when the case is filed; in King County it doesn’t.
This post is part of our series on committed intimate relationships in Washington. Start with the main guide, What is a committed intimate relationship in Washington, and what happens when it ends?, or read about what property gets divided when a CIR ends and how the property case fits with the parenting case.
Last updated September 2026.
Law Offices of Daniel Ehrlich, Everett. Family law in Snohomish, Island, King, and Skagit Counties. (425) 954-5578.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different. If you’re separating from a partner you never married and there’s property between you, talk to an attorney.
