NYC Annulment Lawyers

In order to be accepted, a marriage annulment application must be based on valid reasons. For example, no longer wanting to live with a spouse one month after the marriage is not a valid reason. A person requesting an annulment of a marriage must also provide evidence justifying the cancellation. Therefore, you may wonder, “In which cases can a marriage annulment be requested?” and “What are the consequences of a marriage annulment?”

Remember, an application for a marriage annulment is more limited than an application for a petition for divorce. Here are a marriage annulment’s main effects: any donations between spouses are returned; the annulment being retroactive, the spouses are deemed to have never been married and they are considered to have lived in concubinage; and a spouse who has acquired US nationality through marriage loses the benefit. Remember, a representation by a lawyer is obligatory, as in the matter of divorce.

The following rules apply to civil marriages. As a reminder, polygamy is prohibited in the US. Civil law provides that one cannot contract a second marriage before the dissolution of the first. Therefore, you can only be married to one person at a time. Also, a more radical consequence in the case of an annulment of a marriage is that it results in the annulment of the marriage retroactively and legally the marriage never existed.

The religious annulment of a religious marriage, on the other hand, follows rules specific to each religion. In the following cases: a fraudulent marriage, marriage of a minor or marriage under threat, only one of the spouses can request the annulment of the marriage. In these particular cases, the public prosecutor may also request the annulment of the marriage, particularly if it involves physical or moral violence.

A marriage annulment is a procedure within the jurisdiction of the courts, which remains relatively rare and for which the public prosecutor has an opinion to issue. A marriage annulment will usually require serious failings aimed directly at the validity of the marriage. For example, a marriage annulment may be provided for a marriage where the spouses are related to each other.

For another example, a marriage annulment may also be provided for a marriage for migratory purpose or a marriage for acquiring nationality that is based on a sham marriage. The marriage which has been declared null produces, nevertheless, its effects with regard to the spouses, when it was contracted in good faith. As the annulment results in the retroactive cancellation of the marriage, a spouse cannot usually obtain any financial compensation.

The effects produced by the marriage, therefore, disappear from the person of the spouses and their property. Donations and other matrimonial benefits are also returned between the spouses. It’s as if the marriage never existed.

The conditions that provide for the validity of a marriage depend closely on the conditions under which the marriage took place. For example, a marriage should be publicly celebrated before a competent civil officer of a municipality where one of the spouses has a domicile or a residence at the date of the marriage. Also, the court competent to annul a marriage is the court of first instance of the place of residence of the spouses.

Therefore, the incompetence of the civil officer may provide a case for an annulment of a marriage. The annulment request can usually only come from one or the other of the spouses, or both spouses jointly. On the other hand, a public prosecutor can also request the annulment of a marriage for certain serious cases (with a forced marriage for example).