Blog
NYC Annulment Lawyers
An annulment is when you take a marriage and make it void. When you annul a marriage, by law it appears to have never been a bond and it is wiped away as if it never even occurred in the first place. In a divorce, two parties are trying to end a marriage, but in the case of an annulment, they are trying to erase it from history altogether.
In New York, the common married couple cannot qualify for an annulment because you must meet certain criteria for it to be a legal process. If the marriage was not valid at the time of the ceremony, then an annulment is allowed to take place. This situation must be taken before the court and the judge will have the final say on the matter. Here are the criteria for receiving an annulment in the state of New York:
1. The ages of one or both people in the marriage is under 18.
2. Incest is an evident factor.
3. Either person is already married to another person.
4. Either person is not able to perform sexual intercourse and it was not known at the time of marriage.
5. Consent by either person that the marriage was forced upon them.
6. Mental illness is evident in either person.
7. Either person is mentally ill for a minimum of 5 years.
In addition to the reasons listed above, there are religious annulments that can take place that are different than civil cases. Religious annulments can only take place after a civil annulment has been in place.
Am I Allowed To Get An Annulment?
If your marriage involves bigamy or incest, you do not have to go through legal processes for it to be considered void by the law. If your marriage can be automatically voided, there is no need to have it annulled by the state of New York where you will have to prove your case and go through a trial.
You must be a resident of New York for a minimum of 12 months before you can file for an annulment. In New York, marriages between parents and children, siblings, and full or half-blood relatives are prohibited. If you are involved in a marriage of this nature, it is automatically considered to be invalid.
To file an annulment, you will go before a court and will need to have evidence for the annulment as well as witnesses who can testify. If your grounds for annulment was that you were forced into the marriage, you need to have someone who can testify to this actually happening and their spoken word that you were threated into the marriage for it to count as evidence for the case.
You will need to have an annulment lawyer to help you through this case as they have to help you gather all of the materials and get the paperwork in order to go before the court. If there are children involved in this situation, your lawyer can help you find the care and support you and the kids will need through this process.
When To Get An Annulment
If your marriage has been invalid since the beginning, then it is up to you whether or not you go through with the annulment process. If it helps you to have peace of mind to erase any history of this event taking place, then it is allowed for you to go through the process.
If you were young and made a mistake of getting married before you were old enough to know what you were doing, an annulment might be forced by your parents because they believe that it allows you to erase this from your history and start on a clean slate.
Going through with an annulment is often times much more affordable than filing for a divorce and can be accomplished in a much shorter period of time. In the case of an annulment you are not having to divide up belongings or land or anything, so once you are granted an annulment from the judge, the marriage is no longer in existence.
By having an annulment lawyer by your side they can help lift the burden of gathering all the necessary documents and evidence you will need when you stand before a judge. Due to the nature of this case, you will benefit greatly by having someone who knows the field entirely to help you as you navigate this situation. An annulment is not something that everyone is educated about or has experience in because most of the time this does not happen in society today. If you are needing assistance in this area, contact an NYC annulment lawyer and have someone right there with you each step of the way.