When your marriage starts to sour, you could find yourself worried about the road ahead.
Most people have heard horror stories about divorces riddled with conflict and that result in significant emotional and psychological turmoil, which might give you pause about moving forward with a marriage dissolution.
But you have to find a path that sets you on course to the healthy and successful future you deserve.
While divorce might be an option, you should first consider whether an annulment is a possibility in your circumstances.
What is an annulment?
Unlike a divorce, where you end your marriage, annulment seeks a finding that the marriage was never valid in the first place. Annulment can be obtained if one of the requisite characteristics necessary to finalize a marriage didn’t exist at the time that the marriage occurred. Any of the following may be grounds for an annulment:
- Mental incapacity that left one of the parties without an understanding of the ramifications of the marriage and the obligations that accompany it.
- The lack of a valid marriage license at the time the marriage was commenced.
- Fraud or misrepresentation, such as when one of the individuals fails to disclose a prior divorce, a criminal history, a terminal medical condition, or an inability to have children.
- Duress, where one party feels pressured to marry the other individual.
- The existence of a blood relationship between the parties.
- One of the parties was under the age of majority at the time of the marriage’s inception.
- One of the parties is still married to someone else when the marriage in question was created.
What’s the difference between annulment and divorce from a legal perspective?
Since an annulment leads to the marriage never being recognized, those who successfully annul their marriage don’t have to navigate the complex legal issues that accompany divorce proceedings, such as property division.
Therefore, if you were to annul your marriage, then you would be able to walk away with your own property without having to equally divide your assets, which would likely be considered part of the marital estate, with your spouse.
Additionally, annulment alleviates the potential need for spousal support, so neither party will have an obligation to pay support to the other.
As far as children are concerned, the parties can address custody matters as if they were never married and the child was born out of wedlock.
The parents might agree to a custody arrangement, or they may have to go to court to secure a custody order from the judge. The child’s best interests will still control.
So, even though Arizona is a no-fault state when it comes to divorce, there are some major differences between divorce and annulment. Which legal avenue should you choose?
Choosing the legal option that’s right for you
The legal avenue that you pursue is going to depend on the circumstances of your case and what you hope to get out of the process.
For example, if you’re hoping to get out of your marriage without having financial obligations lingering over you far into the future, then you should strongly consider pursuing an annulment if the facts warrant it.
On the other hand, if you need financial assistance once your marriage is ended, then you’ll want to pursue divorce and aggressively fight back against any attempts to try to annul your marriage.
Regardless of which direction you go, you need to have a strong legal strategy in place that’s supported by the evidence. Otherwise, you could be subjected to an outcome that’s contrary to your best interests.
So, before making your decision, carefully think through what you want and need out of the dissolution of your marriage.