ABSTRACT
Where a man and a woman have gone through a ceremony of marriage followed by cohabitation, there is a presumption that the ceremony was valid. It was formerly held that the presumption could be rebutted only by evidence that went beyond a mere balance of probability (Piers v Piers (1849)), but the modern view of standards of proof suggests that rebuttal on the balance of probabilities would suffice (Re H (1996)).
