Any single person who uses the web and/or real life to find dating partners will hear horror stories about men and women who claim they’re single but are actually married. This is especially common among couples where the spouse is in the military. Dating apps can reveal quite a few spouses who date other people while their husbands and wives are overseas. Even if you think you trust the person you want to date, you still need to verify that the person is single.

Another issue that can pop up is a divorce that never went through. Let’s say that you meet someone who filed for divorce in the past and signed all the paperwork. When the two of you decide to get married, you may need to make sure that the divorce happened. If your partner’s former spouse never signed the paperwork or didn’t file it, the divorce never occurred. Something as simple as your partner skipping over a page can result in the court turning down the divorce and claiming that the two are still married.