How many annulments can you get

Once the petition has been filed, your spouse must respond within eight days, either accepting or disputing the annulment. If they dispute the petition, then you may need to attend court to make your case to a judge. This is the final legal document that says your marriage has been annulled and will be needed should you wish to remarry in the future.

The whole annulment process can take around six to eight months if it is uncontested. Contested cases may take longer and will require expert legal advice. It may be useful to seek mediation to avoid any lengthy and costly court disputes. We are specialists in non-confrontational family law and many of our team are members of Resolution — a group of family lawyers committed to removing conflict from family law.

Our goal is to help you manage your family law issues in a way that protects your best interests and saves you time and money. After a divorce , the law still recognizes the marriage as having existed in the past but ended due to irreconcilable differences.

Unlike a divorce, an annulment cancels a marriage. After an annulment, it is as if the marriage never existed. The courts will not recognize you or your spouse as ever being married and will toss records of your marriage as invalid. The courts may find a marriage invalid for a variety of reasons , including:. If the courts decide your marriage is invalid, it will declare that the marriage never existed from the standpoint of the law. Annulments are not as complex as divorces, but they do have their own set of requirements.

You must file your request for annulment with the courts in your county before the statute of limitations for an annulment runs out. In California, the time limit differs depending on the situation. If you base your annulment on physical incapacity, age, or force, you have four years to file. These individuals are likely to pursue an annulment, with divorce as a last resort. Likewise, there are those who seek an annulment for religious reasons. The bottom line is that in today's environment you're much more likely to qualify for a divorce than an annulment.

So the choice of which avenue to pursue may be out of your hands. A marriage can be annulled only when the law concludes that your marriage was "void" or "voidable. There's a major distinction between "void" and "voidable. In a voidable marriage, however, legal reasons for an annulment may exist, but they won't invalidate the marriage unless one of the spouses requests the annulment.

As indicated above, a void marriage wasn't legal to begin with. Two of the most common underlying reasons for considering a marriage void are the illegal acts of "bigamy" and "incest".

A bigamous marriage exists when one of the spouses was legally married to someone else when the marriage took place. An incestuous marriage occurs when the spouses are close family members. Exactly what constitutes a close family member depends on a particular state's law.

Some are obvious, like brother and sister. But some states may also ban marriage between first cousins. Regarding voidable marriages, it's important to note that if you ratified approved the marriage after discovering the circumstances that could make it invalid, it's not likely a court will grant an annulment. Continuing to live together as a married couple after learning about the condition that could potentially invalidate the marriage is a typical example of ratification.

The most obvious effect of an annulment is that it renders the marriage null and void. But there are other possible consequences. For example, it could impact a spouse's ability to get support alimony from the other spouse.

Likewise, it might affect a spouse's rights to property acquired during the marriage. So you should definitely consult with a family law attorney before making any decisions regarding annulment.