Annulment Lawyer

During an annulment, a marriage is “voided” meaning that legally, it never existed. In a divorce, a party may receive benefits (such as alimony) from the other party. In an annulment, no benefits can be claimed.

The State of Florida would prefer that marriages end in divorce, rather than annulment. The laws regarding annulments are very narrow, and they can only be done under very specific circumstances. In light of this, Florida is a no-fault divorce state, meaning that no fault needs to be proven in order to get a divorce – spouses can be divorced for any reason.

To get an annulment, it must be proven that the marriage itself was not valid in the first place. There are situations which must be proven, including:

• Coercion: The people in a marriage must enter into that relationship willingly and voluntarily. A coerced marriage includes a marriage which was performed against the will of one or both parties. Usually, these types of marriages are done at the strong behest of the family (think shotgun weddings).
• Duress: A marriage may be annulled if there were threats of violence, or there was fraud involved. This means that one of the parties misrepresented themselves or they used threats of violence or violence as grounds to get married.
• Bigamy: This means that two parties enter into a marriage when one party is still legally married to another party.
• Incest: This type of marriage is void from the beginning. The family member involved may be a brother, sister, aunt, uncle, nephew, or niece. In this instance, the parties involved may potentially serve jail time and have to pay fines, as it is a third-degree felony.
• Non-Consent: In this type of marriage, one of the parties is underage.

Only the person who is innocent in the situation can seek and may be granted the annulment. It is possible for the innocent party to receive attorneys’ fees and other reimbursement for costs even though the couple was never legally married.