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Divorce, shmivorce.

Despite their marriage being legally over at the time of Gary Coleman‘s death in May, Shannon Price is insisting that she was his common-law wife.

A case of diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks—or just a play for Coleman’s estate?

That’ll be up to a Utah judge to decide.

Price’s Provo-based attorney, Todd Bradford, has filed a petition in a Utah court seeking to have their twisted union declared a common-law marriage, which indeed would pave the way for his client to take control of Coleman’s assets.

Utah’s common-law marriage statute requires that “both parties are of legal marriage age and are able to give consent. . .Both parties are capable of being married…The parties live(d) together as man and wife…The parties assume(d) marital responsibilities and duties…[and] The parties “held themselves out” as husband and wife, and others perceive(d) them to be married.”

According to the petition obtained by E! News, while the couple divorced a couple of years ago and Gary even sought a restraining order against his ex, they still fit that legal definition to a ‘T” because they remained living together among other factors.

Read Price’s petition

“If you look at the common-law statute, the main element is that did they hold themselves out to the public as a married couple,” Bradford told E! News.

“They had joint bank accounts. For the last three years they filed taxes as ‘married filing jointly.’ Gary this year filed for Social Security and disability and on both those applications he stated, ‘I am married to Shannon Price.’ And their neighbors all believe they were married…They had a lot to prove they had held themselves out to being a married couple.”

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b190511_gary_colemans_ex_files_common-law.html#ixzz0trxG5ZnH