What is an Annulment?

I am often asked about annulments and how they differ from a divorce. One of the biggest differences is that in order to seek a divorce a couple needs to be married for a minimum of one year. An annulment has no such requirement. Annluments however require a higher degree of proof and corroboration wherein a divorce does not. A divorce is the dissolution of a marriage while an annulment makes the marriage a nullity, as though it never existed.

The grounds for annulment are as follows:

1. If either spouse is incurably incapable of having sexual intercourse, the marriage may be annulled.
2. If one of the parties is not over the age of 18 years. A marriage between persons under the age of 18 years may be annulled, at the discretion of the Court, if the spouse under 18 wants an annulment.
3. If, after marriage, either partner becomes incurably insane for five years or more, the marriage can be annulled. However, the sane spouse may be required to support the insane spouse for life.
4. The parties must knowingly consent to the marriage. It may be voided if either spouse consents to marry as a result of the force or duress of the other spouse; or either spouse cannot understand the nature, effect and consequences of marriage.
5. The marriage may be annulled where the consent was obtained by fraud, provided the fraud was such that it would have deceived an ordinarily prudent person and was material to obtaining the other party's consent. The fraud must be such as to go to the essence of the marriage contract. Only the injured spouse can obtain the annulment on lack of consent. One such common example is where one party tells the spouse prior to the marriage of their intent to have children and after the marriage claims that they never wanted children and only said same to induce the spouse in to the marriage.

If the man and woman come within the exceptions above, the marriage is void and a declaration of the nullity of a void marriage may be obtained in the Supreme Court. The effect of such a declaration is to legitimize the children and to dissolve the marriage as a matter of public record, and to provide for support, maintenance, equitable distribution of marital property, insurance, custody, visitation, determination of separate property, counsel fees etc. It is also more difficult to get an annulment as opposed to a divorce. It involves a higher degree of proof and many times corroborative evidence from other witnesses is required to establish grounds.

The effect of a civil annulment does not necessarily pave the way for a religious annulment. In the Catholic Church, an annulment is a declaration that after investigation, flaws were discovered in the marital relationship that prevented it from becoming a marriage. The religious annulment does not "erase" the civil contract, and does not render the children illegitimate. It merely states that after investigation, the church has decided that a marriage was not valid. Grounds for a catholic annulment vary and can range from psychological incapacity to refusal to have children to psychological immaturity.

In the interest of expediency many times annulments are rejected in favor of a more easily provable and faster divorce proceeding. The result remains the same, the ending of the marital relationship.