A lot of people assume that if a marriage was very short, they can simply get it annulled. That's not how annulment works in New Jersey.
You could be married for ten years, ten months, or ten days. The length of the marriage, by itself, does not determine whether you qualify for an annulment. The important question is whether there was a legally recognized problem with the marriage from the beginning.
If there wasn't, even a marriage that lasted only a few weeks will generally need to end through divorce.
A divorce ends a legally valid marriage. An annulment is different because you are asking the court to declare the marriage null based on circumstances that existed when the marriage began.
That distinction is important because annulment is not simply a quicker or easier alternative to divorce. You cannot choose it because the marriage was brief, you immediately regretted getting married, or the relationship fell apart sooner than expected.
You need a legally recognized basis for the annulment.
New Jersey recognizes limited circumstances that may support an annulment. Depending on the facts, those can include an existing marriage or civil union, a prohibited familial relationship, certain circumstances involving physical and incurable impotence that were unknown to the other spouse, lack of mental capacity to consent, inability to give valid consent because of intoxicants or drugs, duress, lack of legal capacity because of age, or fraud involving an essential part of the marital relationship.
There may also be other circumstances traditionally recognized by New Jersey courts in equity.
The details matter. Some grounds can also be affected by what happened after the problem was discovered. If the spouses continued the marriage after learning about the issue, for example, that may affect whether an annulment remains available.
Fraud is one of the areas where people can easily misunderstand annulment.
Finding out that your spouse lied to you before the wedding does not automatically mean your marriage can be annulled. People can lie about money, their background, their accomplishments, or countless other things. Those lies may be significant to you personally without necessarily satisfying the legal requirements for annulment.
The alleged fraud generally needs to concern something fundamental to the marital relationship and have influenced the decision to marry.
That makes these cases highly fact-specific. What exactly did your spouse tell you? Was it false at the time? Did you rely on it when deciding to get married? How fundamental was the issue to the marriage? When did you discover the truth? And perhaps most importantly, what did you do after you found out?
Those details can determine whether annulment is potentially available or whether divorce is the appropriate legal process.
This is another common misconception. Even when an annulment is available, it does not necessarily mean every legal and financial issue connected with the relationship simply disappears.
Depending on the circumstances, there may still be property, debts, financial support, or other issues that need to be addressed. If children are involved, their legal rights and the parents' responsibilities do not disappear because the marriage is annulled.
So I would not approach annulment as a way to erase everything that happened during the marriage. The practical consequences can be more complicated than that.
Most people who ask me about annulment do not actually qualify for one.
Sometimes they were married for only a few months. Sometimes they realized almost immediately that getting married was a mistake. Sometimes they discovered something about their spouse that made them wish the marriage had never happened.
I understand why "annulment" sounds like the logical answer in those situations. Legally, however, regret and a short marriage are not enough.
If there was no qualifying legal problem with the marriage when it began, divorce will generally be the process used to end it.
And that is why it is worth understanding the distinction before you file anything. Starting the wrong type of case can create unnecessary expense and delay when you are already trying to move forward.
If you are considering ending your marriage and want to understand the New Jersey divorce process before making your next move, my free Divorce Smarter Course explains issues involving custody, support, property division, settlement, and other decisions that can affect your case.
Until next time,
Steve