The legal situation of a person is defined on the basis of relevant civil status acts.

According to Polish law there are four categories of marital status:
– single – persons who have never been legally married,
– married – persons who are legally married,
– divorced – persons whose marriage was dissoluted by a judicial decree,
– widowed – persons whose marriage ceased to exist due to the death of a spouse.
Persons against whom a court ruled separation from a legal point of view - continued to remain in a marriage.