Divorce with Decency by Bradley A. Coates

Author:Bradley A. Coates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2017-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Annulment

Bigamy: the only crime on the books where two rites make a wrong.

—Bob Hope

People have many of the same misconceptions regarding annulments as they do about separations. Many folks tend to think annulments are somehow tied in with the fact that the marriage has only been of a limited duration. People calling my office for annulments seem to think that there ought to be some type of an initial “get out of jail free” grace period, i.e., that if it has been only a three-or-four-month marriage, it can’t really be all that serious, thus one should be entitled to simply back out.

The legal reality, however, is that once you’re married—you’re married. Annulments have absolutely nothing to do with the length of time that the marriage lasted. Instead, there are a limited number of very rare conditions that one would have to prove in order to qualify for an annulment rather than a divorce.

Fraud is one viable ground for obtaining an annulment. This would have to include an original intent by one party to deceive the other on an issue that was integral to the basic foundation of the marriage itself. Other statutory grounds that might qualify for an annulment are if either party had a “loathsome disease” that they failed to disclose, or if one spouse was underage, or perhaps a bigamy or incest situation. In these cases, you may be able to get the marriage annulled, rather than having to go through a divorce.

As you can imagine, however, the situations listed above are relatively rare. Courts are very strict about granting annulments, and they are difficult to obtain. An annulment also generally costs more to process than does a simple divorce. Remember, annulments have nothing to do with the fact that you just realized early on in the marriage that it was not going to work out. It is also crucial to understand that in both annulment and legal separation cases, the family court can order support, but cannot divide property.

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