Annulment
So you'd rather erase your marriage than get a divorce? Not a bad idea, if you can get away with it. Florida does allow for annulments, but they are rare.
Be careful, though. Just because a judge gives you an annulment doesn't mean that your church will. (Though many churches will annul a marriage even after divorce.) Also, an annulment may cost you your interest in property you may be entitled to in a divorce.
To get an annulment, you'll have to prove that your marriage was fraudulent and void (or voidable).
There are a number of ways to prove fraud, but the most common is to prove that your "spouse" was already married when you got married. You can't marry someone who is already married, so your current marriage is a "nullity" and can be annulled. (You may not even have to get an annulment, since, technically, there is no marriage to annul, but that's another story.)
But assuming you can't get out of marriage just by proving that your spouse was already married on your wedding day, you may have to prove the marriage wasn't "consummated." Consummated doesn't mean what you think it does, but in-bedroom activities are a part of consummation. "Consummate" means "to begin." So, in essence, you'd have to prove that your marriage never began. That is, you never moved in together, never opened accounts together, never referred to each other as husband and wife, etc. In other words, you had a ceremony, filed the license, but then stopped the whole marriage deal.
Be careful what you ask for, though, when filing for annulment instead of divorce. If you get your annulment, you may lose your entitlements to alimony, interests in your "spouse's" property, etc. (Though at least one Florida appellate court has said that a man can't get out of paying alimony when he was the one committing the fraud by marrying more than one woman.)
When we file for annulment, we tend to file for both annulment and divorce in the alternative. That way, we try for the annulment, but, if we learn that our client will lose property because the marriage will be annulled, we switch strategies and go for divorce instead.
posted by Brent @ 4:16 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
hello please help me I would like to file for annulment myself. i married an man in anotehr country (honduras) and i realized that he did not love me and the marriage was never cosumated, since i left a week after we got married and since have not returned. can I file for anullment myself? please answer me someone zstar@hotmail.com. thank you!
hello, I am trying to prove that my husband never divorced his first wife. I don't understand how I can prove that he never divorced her, or she never divorced him, for that matter. Does anyone know how to go about proving this?
You can't prove a negative.
Maybe you could try to find his (alleged) ex-wife. If she says they were divorced, you can look it up. If she says they were never divorced, you have grounds to ask for an annulment, then he'll have to prove that he was divorced at the time the two of you got married. If he can't prove it, you may get your annulment.
Hi. I am looking for assistance. I would like to get an annulment if possible. My husband and I were married 3 month ago and he has left me and has rented his own apartment. We do not own and property together or have any joint accounts. He moved into a townhome I previously owned. Can I qualify for an annulment and how long does this take?
Was there an impediment to the validity of your marriage? Was one of you already married when you got married? Was one of you under age? Was one of you unconscious and unwilling during the ceremony? Are you brother and sister?
Without some legal impediment that invalidates your marriage, you can't get an annulment.
If you do qualify to get an annulment, it takes the same amount of time as it does to get a divorce: anywhere from a few weeks to several years, depending on how complicated your case is.
Hi, i would like to get an annulment. ive been married for 10 months. Im currently in NY and he is in Orlando (were we got married). he was supposed to move here after we got married but that never happened so we never even lived together. we are ready to end the relation. do i qualify for an annulment?
please answer to caritogues@hotmail.com
I need to be more clear about this.
Here's the law: a valid marriage can only end in divorce or death. A VALID MARRIAGE CANNOT END IN ANNULMENT.
So what makes a marraige invalid (therefore able to be ended with an annulment)? Here are some examples:
The parties are brother and sister.
The parties are of the same sex.
One of the parties was married to someone else when they got married.
One of the parties was insane and did not understand that they were getting married.
There was a shotgun to the head of one of the parties at the wedding.
One of the parties is 11 years old.
Etc.
Get the idea? Annulment is almost impossible. If you have to ask, you don't qualify. Just go for the divorce.
I married a man from Peru less than 5 months ago and now find out his divorce was not finalized yet, only a preliminary separation. He is leaving for Peru next week for a year or so. I want to know if he has to be present to get an annulment, and how much does it cost to file?
You're not actually married. Since he was married at the time of your ceremony, your marriage isn't valid, and it isn't strictly necessary that you file for annulment. You could just simply say, "Hey, this was always a void marriage and therefore it never really happened."
It's not the best way to go, though. If I were in your shoes, I would go ahead and get the annulment judgment from the judge, so that there is no argument that you were ever married to him.
To get the annulment judgment, though, you have to follow the same procedure as if you were divorcing him. In other words, you can't just do it behind his back. You'll have to get him served by a process server or a deputy, just as if you were divorcing him. The cost for filing an annulment is the same as for filing a divorce, $363, and I'm sure almost all lawyers charge the same fee. Email or call me if you'd like my help.
But he is leaving this week for Peru, can I still do it if I cannot serve him?
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I'd run, not walk, to the nearest clerk's office to file your case and have him served. You still have to serve him, even in Peru. In the U.S., it only costs $20 or $30 to serve someone. Serving someone in Peru on a Florida annulment case could cost thousands.
You should call a lawyer as quickly as you can.
What if a man and woman were married in FL 4 months ago (both out of state residents) but the marriage paper was never turned in and is not registered with the county they were married in? Are they technically married? Do they have to record the marriage to then begin a divorce? Or can the paper simply be destroyed?
If the license was never submitted to the clerk's office, then no legal marriage has occurred.
If you wanted to be really, really safe, you could file for an annulment (and I would, but then I'm one of those people who likes to be really, really safe when it comes to legal issues), but I think most lawyers would say, "Destroy the document and forget the whole experience."
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