Divorce vs. Annulment

I just received a message from a woman who was questioning whether she should get an annulment or a divorce. Amazingly, that is a question that I have been asked very few times on this site.

By definition, annulment is a court procedure that dissolves a marriage. There is one big difference between a divorce and an annulment. An annulment pronounces that a marriage never happened.

There are two types of annulment. One is a civil annulment and one is a religious annulment.

Civil Annulments vary with each state but usually, at least one of the following criteria must be met.

• Misrepresentation or fraud. Examples might be that a woman is not of the age of consent or if a spouse lied about the ability to have children.
• Concealment. Examples might be that a spouse did not share facts like felony convictions, drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, inability to have children, children from a prior relationship.
• Refusal or inability to consummate the marriage. If either spouse is unable or refuses to have sexual intercourse with the other spouse.
• Misunderstanding. An example might be if one spouse wanted children and the other did not.

Annulments are usually requested when marriages are of a very short duration and examples might be a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

Religious Annulments

A couple may obtain a religious annulment after they obtain a civil divorce. The purpose is so that one or both of the parties may remarry within the Roman Catholic Church and have that marriage recognized by the church.

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