Annulment

A party may petition the court to annul a marriage which in effect means that the marriage is treated as if it never occurred. There is no time limit that applies to annulments. The bases for annulling a marriage include fraud/misrepresentation, incest, bigamy, a party was underage at the time of the marriage or impotence/failure to consummate the marriage. Although an annulment means the marriage never occurred, a court may still enter orders addressing custody, parent time, child support, division of assets and debt and other financial issues as it would in a divorce action. Parties may agree that an annulment should be granted but courts generally require a hearing to take testimony regarding the specific grounds for an annulment.