Interested in Obtaining an Annulment Rather Than Divorcing?

Written by Jon D. Alexander, Esq.

Thursday, 19 March 2009 13:23

Legal termination of marriage, in California, happens in one of three ways.

(1) Legal Separation; (2) Marital Dissolution; or (3) Nullity.

Nullity may or may not be an option. It depends on whether the validity of the marriage is in doubt. This is the primary difference between marital dissolution and nullity.

A nullity is pursued because the petitioner (one who files the action) believes that no valid marriage ever existed and their seeking to prove this theory. A marital dissolution, rather, merely terminates an otherwise valid marriage.

That is, a nullity action asks a question? Was this marriage a valid marriage from the inception? A court must inquire as to whether the marriage was valid from day one.

Is your marriage a valid one or is there some doubt? Were all of your formalization procedures (like obtaining the license, solemnization, and authentication) performed correctly? If not, these could be potential grounds for nullity. However, a marriage may be void or voidable for other reasons including incest, bigamy, inducement by fraud or force, or where one or both parties were minors at the time of the marriage.

Even if a nullity is an option keep in mind that there are some disadvantages of a nullity proceeding, including but not limited to the following. Proving grounds for a judgment of nullity are likely to be more difficult and costly to prove. The party seeking a judgment of nullity may also have to overcome statutes of limitations hurdles. Fault play no role in a marriage dissolution proceeding. In a nullity proceeding, however, issues of innocence or fault are very important for questions of support and an attorney fees and costs award, as well as determining marital (quasi-marital) property rights.

Parties to an invalid marriage do not have community property rights. Rather, the property acquired during void or voidable marriage that would have otherwise been community property is deemed quasi-community property. And it divided up in much the same way as community property. But, and this is an important but. Property is deemed Quasi-community property only when Putative Spouse status is proved. This means that the spouse asserting that the property be deemed Quasi-Community Property must prove that he/she was innocent and that he/she had a good faith belief that the marriage was valid.

Even though there are clearly disadvantages of nullity, there are many benefits of nullity as well including but not limited to the following. Will you please visit my site linked below to read about the benefits. And will you please schedule a free, confidential consultation while you're there. Thank you. Visit my site now!

About the Author:

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