When Can I Get an Annulment?

Many people who are considering bringing an end to their marriage come to their lawyers with the idea of getting an annulment instead of a divorce. This article discusses annulment only in its legal sense, and not in any religious sense. The nature and availability of religious annulment varies with each religious authority.

Annulments are typically available under the following circumstances:

•You and your spouse are close biological relatives, and should not have qualified for marriage under the law. For example, you and your spouse are parent and child, parent and stepchild, aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, or grandparent and grandchild. The precise parameters of the relationship which will qualify a couple for annulment will vary between jurisdictions.

•One of the spouses did not have the mental capacity to enter into a marriage contract. By way of example, at the time of the ceremony a spouse may be incapacitated due to a mental disability, whether temporary or permanent in nature, or from intoxication.

•One of the spouses was below the legal age to consent to marriage.

•You or your spouse entered into the marriage as a result of threat, force or duress.

•You or your spouse were fraudulently induced into entering the marriage. Fraud may include the concealment of an important fact, such as permanent impotence or sterility, a criminal history, or infection with a sexually transmitted disease.

•Your spouse was married to another living person at the time of the marriage. (In some jurisdictions, such a marriage would be considered bigamous and void under the law, and thus it would not be necessary to also seek an annulment.)