Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Annulment differs from divorce where the court ends an otherwise legal marriage on a specific date.

In strict legal terminology, annulment refers only to making a voidable marriage null; if the marriage is void ab initio, then it is automatically null, although a legal declaration of nullity is required to establish this. The process of obtaining such a declaration is similar to the annulment process.

Grounds for Annulment Grounds for a marriage being voidable or void ab initio vary in different legal jurisdictions, but are typically limited to fraud, bigamy, and mental incompetence including that: * Either spouse was already married to someone else at the time of the marriage; * Either spouse was too young to be married, or too young without required court or parental consent; * Either spouse was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the marriage; * Either spouse was mentally incompetent at the time of the marriage; * If the consent to the marriage was based on fraud or force; * Either spouse was physically incapable to be married (typically, inability to have sexual intercourse which persists) at the time of the marriage; * The marriage is prohibited by law due to the relationship between the parties.

* Infidelity exists in marriage, or partners are unfaithful You can't predict when knowing something extra about Annulments will come in handy. If you learned anything new in this article, you should print and file it where you can find it again.