Annulment

An annulment is a court ruling that a supposed marriage was never valid. One of the most common grounds for annulment is fraud. For example, one person may have not disclosed to the other a prior divorce, a criminal record, or an unwillingness to have sexual intercourse. An annulment also may be granted may if one of the parties to the “marriage” was still married to someone else at the time of the marriage that is at issue. Other bases for annulments include marriage of an underage person, marriage to too close a blood relative, and marriage by a person who was under duress as the time of marriage.

Annulments are uncommon compared to divorces because divorces are generally easy to obtain and the bases for an annulment are narrower than the bases for a divorce. One party may prefer an annulment, however, in order to avoid some of the financial obligations that a court might impose in a divorce. For more discussion of legal annulments, see chapter 3.

Aside from annulments granted by a court, a person also may seek a religious annulment of a marriage. A few religions will not permit a member of the faith to enter into a marriage if the member already had one valid marriage. In that circumstance, a person who was divorced would not be permitted to remarry by a member of the clergy of that faith since the divorce implies that a valid marriage existed. However, if the member was able to obtain a declaration by religious court or religious official that the first marriage was not valid, then the member may be free to remarry.

If a person seeking a divorce (or legal annulment) is concerned about the ability to remarry within his or her faith, that person should seek an agreement or court order that the former spouse will cooperate in obtaining a religious annulment or divorce.