Depending on where you reside in the United States, you can select from one of three different types of legal proceedings to resolve marital issues: divorce, legal separation and annulment. Each of these processes deal with the bonds of marriage in different ways, according to the American Bar Association Section of Family Law.
Function
The legal function of an annulment involves determining that a purported marriage never existed in the first place, according to ExpertLaw. While a divorce case terminates a valid marriage, an annulment decrees that no valid marriage exists.
Considerations
One or another key factors must exist before an annulment decree issues. A marriage is invalid if one of the alleged spouses was a minor at the time of the wedding. Invalidity exists if a party was mentally incompetent at the time of the marriage. A person forced to marry another results in an invalid union. Finally, if the spouses are close related by blood--first cousins, for example--the resulting marriage is not valid.
Cure Invalidity
There is no legal way in which a couple can cure an invalid or legally defective marriage. For example, if one of the spouses was a minor at the time of the wedding, the fact that he becomes an adult during the course of the marriage does not render the union valid. The couple would have to marry a second time to create a legally valid union.
Misconceptions
The most common misconception associated with annulment is that it represents an exclusively religious proposition. While different religions, including the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian churches, provide annulment procedures, annulment is also a matter of civil law independent of these religious processes.
Expert Assistance
Due to the complexity of annulment laws and procedures, consider engaging the services of a lawyer if you intend to pursue such a case. The American Bar Association maintains consumer resources to assist you in finding legal representation. These resources include contact information for local and state bar associations, organizations that maintain directories of attorneys that represent clients in divorce, legal separation and annulment cases.
