Why You Shouldn’t Get an Annulment

I have a confession to make. In 11 years of practicing family law, I’ve never helped a client get an annulment. Are your surprised? While, I’ve had a few clients ask about them over the years, they are not very common. And, while they may be appropriate for some marriages, they aren’t all that different from getting a divorce. Also, some of the benefits of a divorce are not available if you get an annulment. Do you still think that you should get an annulment? Let’s talk about it.

In this article I will discuss the following:

A word about religious annulments

To be clear, this article is not a guide to religious annulments, such as the ones available in the Catholic church. This a totally separate process from getting a legal annulment with the court. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, obtaining an annulment from a religious order does not change the legal affect of your marriage.

Also, annulments from the Catholic church are available even if you get a divorce and/or had children during your marriage. I’ve had a few clients get them. In those cases, my clients wanted an annulment because they were getting married again and wanted to have their wedding conducted in their church. However, they still wanted a legal divorce because there was marital property to be divided.

In some religions, a second marriage can not be conducted by a religious officiant if the first marriage was not annulled. This is because in the eyes of the religion, the person is still married to their first spouse. Again, if this is something of interest to you, I suggest you research the rules of your faith and determine if that annulment process if right for you.

How is an annulment different from a divorce?

Both a divorce and an annulment may have the same ultimate result, ending your marriage. However, the technical reasons are different. When parties get divorced, they obtain a divorce decree. This means that they are divorced from the bonds of matrimony and free to marry again. However, in an annulment, the court is saying that the marriage never existed, i.e. that it is null and void. Do you see the difference?

No? Let’s try an analogy.

Think of your marriage like a word document on the computer (or phone) that you are reading this article on. I promise I’m not trying to trivialize your pain or make a joke. Ending a marriage is tough stuff.

Let’s say we type the word “married.” When you get an annulment, the court is simply back spacing over the word to get a blank page, i.e. erasing your marriage. In a divorce, the court is putting a period at the end of the word and letting you start a new sentence.

Do you get it now? I hope so.

What are the reasons to get an annulment?

Each state may have slightly different reasons for granting annulments. Therefore, you should check with an attorney in your state to make sure that your situation complies with the rules.

The general criteria for an annulment

The general reasons for an annulment are as follows:

• Fraud or misrepresentation of fact: Did your spouse give you a false name or fail to tell you about their extensive criminal record?
• Inability to consummate the marriage: Does your spouse refuse to have sex with you after your marriage, such that you never had sex at all after marrying?
• Misunderstanding: Did you think your spouse wanted to have kids but they actually did not?
• Force or coercion: Did your spouse use threats or intimidation to force the union?; and
• Unsound mind: Were you or your spouse mentally impaired or hindered by drugs or alcohol such that you could not give consent to the marriage?

Automatically voidable marriages

In addition to the above lists, there are also criteria for automatically voidable marriages. Those are:

• Bigamy: one of both of the parties is still legally married to someone else;
• Under age of consent: Meaning one of more of the parties were below the age of consent to marry for their state and/or did not obtain the required parental permission;
• Incest: The parties are related in such a way that they can not be married.

As you can see, the criteria for an annulment is pretty specific. It is also more specific than the criteria for getting a divorce. Most states simply allow a party to cite “irreconcilable differences” or “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage” in order to obtain a divorce decree. Why?

This is because most states do not want to have to litigate who is at fault for the breakup of the marriage. It is expensive, emotional and time-consuming. Rather, the courts would prefer to allow people to divorce for their own reasons. Therefore, if you would prefer to not discuss the reasons for ending your marriage or, don’t think you can meet any of the above reasons, it is likely better to pursue a divorce instead.

What are the benefits of getting an annulment?

While getting a divorce may not require the specific criteria needed for an annulment, there may be some benefits to ending your marriage in this manner. It really depends on the facts of your case.

An annulment make take less time.

Depending on the laws of your state, an annulment may take less time to process than a divorce decree. Why? Generally, you will not be fighting over property division or spousal support, two aspects of divorce which can be rather time-consuming. However, what if your marriage was for a short duration? Then, it is likely that you did not acquire any property to be divided anyways. Therefore, the time it takes to get an annulment and the time it takes to get a divorce could be similar.

An annulment may be less expensive.

Getting divorced can be an expensive process, particularly if you and your spouse disagree on property division, child custody, child support, etc. Therefore, simply annulling the marriage may result in less court filing fees and lawyers fees. However, if your marriage was only for a short time and there are no children or property to fight over, the costs for an annulment versus a divorce may be pretty equal.

Voiding your marriage may be better for you emotionally.

Any breakup is difficult. However, having a marriage that ends because of fraud or misrepresentation can be more gutting for some. Do you agree?

I can see where being able to legally say that this marriage never happened may be easier for some parties to move on. Also, depending on the circumstances, the stigma of divorce after a short marriage may cause religious or societal shame. Being able to annul the marriage may help with that as well.

Is there a time limit to get an annulment?

Again, every state is different. However, I generally find that an annulment is going to be easier to obtain if your marriage was only of a short duration, i.e. a few weeks or months. It may be hard to argue some of the criteria (i.e. fraud, coercion, unsound mind) if you and your spouse have been married for several years.

This will be particularly true if your spouse contests your request for an annulment. In such a case, it will likely be more cost advantageous and perhaps even faster, to simply request a divorce. As discussed above, contesting the basic grounds for a divorce will be a lot harder than contesting the specific reasons for an annulment.

Can you get child support and child custody if you get an annulment?

Did you marriage produce children? If so it may be difficult to get an annulment. Why? Well, while the simple fact that you and your spouse had kids does not automatically prevent you from annulling your marriage, it may make it difficult to argue some of the criteria required to do so.

However, an annulment does not automatically preclude you from obtaining child support or a child custody order. Why? This is because being married is not a requirement for obtaining either of those remedies. As I am sure that you are aware, a lot of children are born to parents that are not married! Making a claim for either of these things simply requires that you are the parents of the children (in the biological or legal sense) that you want an order for. No marriage required.

Are you eligible for spousal support, alimony or property division if you get an annulment?

While you may be eligible for child support or child custody, it is likely that you will not be eligible for property division or spousal support. Why? Again, when you get an annulment you are asking for the marriage to be erased, i.e. to act like it never happened. How could you have obtain marital property or alimony in a marriage that never existed?

It is likely that this is not going to be a huge issue for you if your marriage only lasted a few weeks or months. This is because it is unlikely that you and your spouse acquired property to even be divided during this time. Furthermore, any slight increase in value on any pre-marital property during this period is simply not going to be worth fighting over. Also, I don’t generally see alimony awards in cases where the marriage was less than a year.

But what if I want property division or alimony?

However, what if you were married longer than a few months? What if you bought a house during that period? What if your spouse wants an annulment to avoid dividing property with you or paying alimony?

Do any of those questions apply to you?

If so, then I would strongly urge you to rethink getting an annulment. While going through the divorce process can be painful, it may be financially worth it to you if there is property or spousal support to be awarded. Again, if you are not sure if an annulment is right for you, I strongly suggest that you speak to an attorney in your state before going any further.

Do you have more questions about annulment? Have you gotten an annulment before? What did you think about the process? Let me know in the comments!