An annulment is separate from a divorce. While both will terminate a marriage, the two processes do not accomplish the dissolution similarly. A divorce legally ends the marriage but acknowledges that the marriage existed for some time. However, an annulment has the effect of legally invalidating the marriage.
Annulments can be awarded on legal or religious grounds. This article will only focus on legal annulments, as the specifics involved in religious annulments can vary depending on the religion.
Generally, states will only grant annulments in certain situations. One reason for this is to prevent couples from circumventing divorce laws because these laws are meant to protect spouses. For instance, if one spouse works outside the home and the other spouse stays home to provide childcare, divorce laws are intended to ensure that the spouse has possibly sacrificed their career to care for the children.
Remember that any jointly acquired property will still need to be distributed during an annulment. However, the length of the marriage in those cases is usually much shorter than in cases involving divorce. This implies that the parties seeking an annulment have not sacrificed their earning ability in reliance on their partner to the same extent as in other marriages.
As mentioned above, after a marriage is annulled, it is as if it did not take place from a legal standpoint. But, if children were born to the couple while they were legally married, their kids would still be considered children of the marriage.
What are the Grounds for Annulment?
State laws differ across state lines, but a few legal grounds for annulments remain common throughout the process. In an annulment case, a person has to be at fault. One of the more common grounds for an annulment is fraud or misrepresentation.
In order to obtain an annulment on this basis, one of the parties must have lied about something material, such as whether they are already married to someone else. A lie needs to be significant to provide grounds for an annulment. It implies that it must be about something that, if you had known about it, you would not have agreed to marry your spouse in the first place.
Another similar reason to obtain an annulment is called “concealment,” and involves hiding material information instead of lying about it. Concealment is when someone fails to disclose a major material fact regarding themselves.
One example would be that they had a criminal record. The concealment needs to be of the sort that had the spouse known about it, they would not have agreed to get married. Furthermore, another related ground is a misunderstanding. This could occur when one of the spouses does not want to have children, but the other does. They may realize that there is another major issue in their lives that they incorrectly thought was something to which they agreed.
Moreover, other common reasons for annulment include impotence, incest, and lack of consent. For the impotence ground to be applicable, the impotence needs to be incurable, and the spouse must not have known about it at the time of the marriage. The incest ground applies when the parties are very closely related to having been married in the first place. The specific familial relationships that apply will depend on each state law in the jurisdiction.
Finally, if one of the parties could not give consent due to mental incapacity or were forced into the marriage, the lack of consent ground will apply.
These are some instances of how you may demonstrate the necessary grounds for a civil annulment. One spouse may be physically incapable of having children, and that spouse might have lied to the other spouse. This could involve both fraud and lack of consummation. Incest is a relationship between two blood relatives who would be prohibited from legal marriage in their state.
Bigamy occurs when one person is already married at the time of marrying someone else. Lack of consent can occur when one spouse is too young to consent on their own behalf, and the other spouse did not provide proper consent from the parents of the underage spouse.
You might be able to demonstrate an unsound mind if you or your spouse were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of your marriage. If you were blocked by intoxication or mental disorder from understanding your actions, you might be able to get an annulment. Finally, a marriage can be annulled if one spouse threatens, blackmails, or coerces the other spouse into the marriage.
Furthermore, one spouse may have concealed something from the other. This could imply that one spouse did not inform the other of an addiction, for example, drugs, a prior felony conviction, involvement in a violent gang, an ongoing criminal activity, a sexually transmitted disease, or any other relevant health factor.
The inability or refusal to consummate the marriage. This refers to the inability or refusal of one spouse to have sexual intercourse with the other. A significant misunderstanding is one of the most common reasons for an annulment, and it could be that one spouse wanted to have children while the other did not.
If you can demonstrate that one or more of the above reasons applies, you may be able to obtain a civil annulment of your marriage. However, if none of these situations applies to you, it may be challenging to convince a judge to grant a civil annulment. You may still be able to obtain a religious annulment; check each state law for this. But remember that this will not affect your legal responsibilities as a spouse.
Is Annulment Law Different from Divorce?
In some ways, annulments are similar to divorces but differ from divorces in other ways. As a divorce, an annulment is a court order after a proceeding that essentially terminates a marriage. However, unlike a divorce, an annulment has the legal effect of establishing that the marriage never existed in the first place.
Some people may prefer an annulment rather than live with the stigma that they attach to a divorce. Other people might prefer annulments for religious reasons as well. Some religious institutions do not allow a person to remarry that has had a prior divorce. In these circumstances, an annulment may permit the person to get remarried within their religious institution.
Usually, there is a higher probability of having your marriage annulled if you have been married for only a short time. Indeed, most annulments are granted to marriages that have lasted only a few weeks or months. It is easier to divide the assets and property of a couple that typically does not have children and has already considered custody, support, or visitation issues if applicable.
However, states usually have regulations that rule annulments of long-term marriages. These laws and rules will guide dividing property after an annulment and determining child custody, visitation rights, and support obligations of the parents. It is important to note that children whose parents have had their marriage annulled are not considered illegitimate by the law.
When Do I Need to Contact a Lawyer?
With the points shared above, it is clear that there is a major difference between annulment and divorce. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the effects of each legal procedure.
It may be useful to contact a local family attorney to obtain more guidance about the process and the local regulations regarding annulment.
