What is an annulment?

Answer 1

There are two types of annulment. Religious and civil. A religious annulment is one where if you were married in a particular religion and church (Catholic), then divorced and wanted to remarry someone else in the church you would have to have the church annul your first marriage in order to do so. You could still remarry civilly or in another relgion without the annulment but the church of your choice (Catholic) will not recognize the second marriage.
A civil annulment is when a marriage after a certain time has not be consumated (they haven't had sex) or one party can prove the other committed fraud or bigamy, fraud being marriage under false pretenses such as lying about one's age or even sex (yes there has been one case where a man and woman got married and it turned out that the woman was transgendered and did not tell her partner). Bigamy speaks for itself as it is against the law here in the U.S. and once proven the subsequent marriage is declared null and void.

Answer 2

A process that is done to make it like the marriage never really happened. (Tech.) I was in a horrible marriage, he did some things that were against the law, beat the sh1t out of me. Long story short, the marriage was annulled. I don't have to think of it as a divorce nor treat it like a divorce. In other words, it is an easy way out.

Just for the record I am happily remarried now. :P Great question. Have a good day!

Kristy

Answer 3

Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Annulment differs from divorce where the court ends an otherwise legal marriage on a specific date.

Grounds for a marriage being voidable or void ab initio vary in different legal jurisdictions, but are typically limited to fraud, bigamy, and mental incompetence including that:

Either spouse was already married to someone else at the time of the marriage;
Either spouse was too young to be married, or too young without required court or parental consent (unless, in some cases, where the marriage continued beyond the age of consent, which validates it);
Either spouse was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the marriage;
Either spouse was mentally incompetent at the time of the marriage;
If the consent to the marriage was based on fraud or force;
Either spouse was physically incapable to be married (typically, inability to have sexual intercourse which persists) at the time of the marriage;
The marriage is prohibited by law due to the relationship between the parties. This is the "prohibited degree of consanguity", or blood relationship between the parties. The most common legal relationship is 2nd cousins; the legality of such relationship between 1st cousins varies across the world.
Prisoners sentenced to a term of life imprisonment may not marry.
The guilty party -- the one with responsibility for having caused the defect in the marriage -- is ordinarily disentitled to request a declaration of nullity. The victimized spouse may ordinarily apply for innocent spouse relief. The fact that a marriage was a nullity ordinarily does not prevent an innocent spouse from collecting the financial benefits of marriage, such as the rights to community property, spousal support, child support, and equitable contribution to attorney fees for litigation expenses.

Answer 4

If you are a Catholic, you can not have a divorce. Then you get an annulment, that is a cancellation of the marriage. It is like virgin Mary; even after giving birth to Jesus, she was still a virgin.

Answer 5

An annulment is when the state or church finds the marriage never existed. This could be because the length of the marriage was so short or, in the case of the catholic church, you had enough money to bribe them to say dog didn't see you as being married.

Answer 6

If an annulment is granted, the marriage is considered to never have taken place.

Answer 7

if you got married, and right away know its a mistake, you can sometimes get the marriage anulled, which makes it like you were never married...