Annulment in Plymouth County, MA

To get an annulment in Massachusetts, you must prove that your marriage is either void or voidable. Being recently married is not automatically grounds for an annulment just because the time married has been short. If your marriage does not meet any of the criteria listed as either void or voidable, you will need to get divorced.

If for legal reasons, you were not allowed to marry in the first place and the state will not approve such a marriage, it is called a void marriage. For a marriage to be void, one of the following must have occurred:

• Bigamy is when one spouse was already married to someone else, and the other did not know. If the person seeking to have the marriage declared void via an annulment but knew their spouse was already married before their marriage, their only recourse is to seek a divorce, not an annulment.
• An Incest, Consanguinity, and Affinity claim is when someone has married a close relative or a close relative by marriage. Massachusetts prohibits you from marrying your grandparents, step-grandparents, parents, step-parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, or your spouse’s parents, grandparents, children, or grandchildren. Men and women can marry the spouses of their children or marry the parents of their spouses.

If a problem arises that would have prevented a legal marriage from occurring, but the state will give you the option to remain married, you have a voidable marriage. Marriages are voidable if one of the following occurs:

• A spouse was not mentally capable of consenting to the marriage. Being drunk or mentally incompetent could be grounds for having a voidable marriage if the individual challenging the marriage based on these factors can establish that the incapable person could not consent at the time of the marriage.
• One of the spouses cannot participate in sexual intercourse, often due to illness or disability.
• One of the spouses had not yet reached the age of consent at the time of the marriage. In Massachusetts, you must be 18 years old to marry unless granted permission from your parents and the court.
• The marriage involved fraud or deception. Massachusetts courts will only annul a marriage if the fraud went to the heart of the marriage. Annulments for fraud have primarily focused on the spouse’s sexual relations and the ability to have children. Courts had also found fraud when one party was in the marriage purely for ulterior motives, as might be the case if one person thought they were marrying for love. In contrast, the other person was only interested in achieving a particular immigration status. Please keep in mind that many types of fraudulent or deceptive acts will not be grounds for annulment. If you were aware of these behaviors or had known about them from previous partners, an annulment may be denied.

What if I do not wish to have my marriage annulled?

If your spouse has requested an annulment proclaiming that the marriage is voidable, but you do not feel the same, you can request to affirm your marriage by asking the court to declare that you are still legally married.

How might my children be impacted after an annulment is granted?

If a child is born during a marriage, and the marriage subsequently ends in probate court due to either divorce or annulment, the law wants to “legalize” or legitimize the child whenever possible. In most cases, when parents have their marriage annulled, the child is treated the same as if the parents had divorced. In some cases, the child is treated like he or she was born out of wedlock. An annulment does not mean that the father has been removed from a child’s life.

What if my void marriage occurred in another state or country?

If a marriage is void at the time of “union” because it was not legal in the state or country where it took place, then Massachusetts will also have to deem that union as having never been legally entered into. Massachusetts is required to honor other jurisdictions’ decisions and laws when certain conditions are met (Full Faith and Credit). At Sawin Law, P.C., we are experts in annulments and can help to get you the outcome you desire.

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