Annulment or Uncontested Divorce?

In general, the court’s role in divorce is not to pass judgment; you do not have to prove that your spouse is at fault and you are in the right.  The court signs off on the division of marital property, just as it would on the dissolution of a business or the settlement of a deceased person’s estate.  It orders you to pay alimony and child support so that your ex-spouse and children do not have to depend on taxpayer-funded programs for financial support.  It is not in the business of determining whether your relationship with your lying, cheating, freeloading spouse was a “real” marriage.  Annulments, in which the court declares that a marriage never existed and that the marriage certificate solemnizing it was never legally valid, after different from divorces, in which the court dissolves a marriage.  Annulments are much rarer than divorces, and in some cases, one spouse asks the court to annul the marriage while the other spouse asks the court to dissolve it in a divorce.  If you got into your marriage quickly and want to get out of it quickly, but you are not sure whether annulment or divorce is the more appropriate option, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.

When Your Whole Brief Marriage Was a Lie

The court will annul a marriage, even if both parties are asking for a divorce instead, if it is indisputable that the marriage is not legally valid, such as if one spouse was legally married to someone else at the time of your wedding, if both spouses were under 18 years old when they married, or if one spouse had been declared legally incapacitated by the court and could not consent to the marriage.

Besides that, there are situations where you can persuade the court that the marriage was not valid, such as the following:

• You were unable to consent to the marriage because you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Even though the court had not declared you incapacitated, you were suffering from a mental illness that prevented you from giving meaningful consent when you signed the marriage certificate
• Your spouse lied to you about his or her immigration status or ability to have children, and you did not find out until after you married

The court is more likely to find these arguments persuasive if you seek an annulment shortly after marrying than if you stay with your spouse for years and then try to talk your way out of the marriage without an official divorce.

When Your Brief Marriage Was a Mistake, but a Legally Valid One

If you quickly realize that marrying your spouse was a mistake, and so does your spouse, annulment is not the only option.  You can get an uncontested divorce or summary dissolution of marriage.  After a brief marriage, the court’s goal is to restore the parties’ financial situations to how they would be if the marriage never existed.

Contact Schwartz | White About Getting Out of a Brief Marriage Quickly

A South Florida family law attorney can help you resolve your divorce quickly if your marriage was over before it started.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

forbes.com/advisor/legal/divorce/florida-annulment/