Also known as: lawful ages · age of majority · legal age
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The age at which a person attains full legal capacity to enter contracts, make wills, and exercise other legal rights. That age is 18 unless a statute provides otherwise. A person below that age who is not emancipated is a minor.
Luke Latham, age 17, hand-wrote a letter directing his structured settlement annuity to his stepbrother. Because Luke had not reached the age of majority, the writing had no effect as a will and his mother received the funds under intestacy rules.
Luna Lang obtained a child-support order in State A for her daughter who turned 18. The order remained enforceable because the statute expressly extends support orders to children who have attained the age of majority under the issuing state's law.
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Leo Lynch and Lucy Liu, both 19, moved in together and pooled income for household expenses. Their arrangement qualified them as cohabitants because each had already reached the age of majority before beginning to live together as a couple.
Leonard Lowe's will left trust units to his children who held commercial driver's licenses. Ulysses, Leonard's genetic son born outside marriage, received units because Leonard had functioned as his parent before Ulysses reached the age of majority.
Lucas Lee, age 17 at the time of his offense, received a death sentence. The sentence was vacated because the Constitution prohibits capital punishment for offenders who committed their crimes before reaching the age of majority.
Legacy Motors employee Lucy Liu's mother sought court-ordered visitation with Lucy's young child. The court applied the presumption that fit parents act in the child's best interests once the parent has reached the age of majority and established a household.
A person reaches lawful age for will-making at 18 unless a statute provides otherwise. A purported will executed before that age is void.
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No. After reaching lawful age the former minor may disaffirm or ratify the gift. Failure to disaffirm within a reasonable time constitutes ratification.
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Yes. A child-support order may continue for a child who has already attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state.
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Two individuals qualify as cohabitants only after each has reached the age of majority or been emancipated and they live together as a couple.
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A nonmarital child is treated as a child of the genetic parent for class gifts if the genetic parent or specified relatives functioned as a parent before the child reached the age of majority.
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…gender-based classifications. In Stanton v. Stanton , 421 U.S. 7 (1975), the Court held that a statute that imposed a greater age of majority on males than on females was unconstitutional. The Court held that the statute was not substantially related to the achievement of any important governmental objective. In Weinberger v.…