Annulments in Palm Springs, California
Annulments are granted only for specific reasons in California: They are not a matter of right. Even if the other spouse or domestic partner does not object to an annulment, most judges will not grant it absent you proving one of a number of different statutory grounds for annulment. When annulments are sought there are important legal consequences to consider beforehand.
Annulments are broken into two categories: Void and Voidable Marriages. The words 'nullity of marriage' also describe annulments in California.
Void marriages include circumstances where people are related by consanguinity, meaning they are related by blood to certain degrees. These prohibitions vary from state to state. Most are obvious. You cannot marry your uncle in California and you cannot marry your half-sister, but you can marry your cousin - unless you live in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, and other states that do not permit it.
Family Code section 2200 declares that the following marriages are incestuous: Marriages between parents and children, direct ancestors and descendants, between full and half brothers and sisters, and between uncles, nephews, aunts, and nieces.
Bigamous marriages are also considered void at the inception, and are a far more common occurrence than incestuous marriages. A bigamous marriage is a marriage (or domestic partnership) between two persons at least one of him is still legally married or has failed to dissolve their prior domestic partnership. Usually at least one party enters into the marriage innocently. It is not unusual for lawyers to be contacted by clients about an annulment who honestly believed the prior marriage of their partner or their own was dissolved by the courts, but in fact some final act - like the filing of a Judgment of Dissolution - was forgotten or omitted.
The law views the marriage as having no legal effect. This may have the result that no community interest in property is created and it may make it impossible to obtain spousal support. It may also result in the loss of health insurance coverage, social security benefits, and other valuable rights.
For an innocent spouse in the case of bigamy in particular (Family Code section 2201), this can cause extreme difficulties and seem totally unfair. To be denied a right to spousal support after years of believing one has been married when one could not find out otherwise may cause unjust outcomes. Such persons may qualify for protection as "putative spouses." Where they had no reason to suspect the marriage was invalid and relied upon their belief that they were married, putative spouses may be afforded the same rights as married persons. This requires a court determination.
Some marriages are not automatically void, but they are voidable meaning that under certain circumstances, for limited periods of time, the marriages can be challenged and possibly set aside if the defects have not been waived. The California statute is found at FC section 2210. These include marriages involving unemancipated minors, or where there is a prior spouse who was reasonably believed to be dead, marriages involving a person of unsound mind, or where consent of either party was obtained through a fraud that relates to the essence of the marital relation, or where consent was obtained by force, or whether either party at the time of the marriage was physically incapable of entering into the marriage and that incapacity continued and is incurable.
Even these claims if they can be convincingly demonstrated to a family court judge need to be asserted early on. Family Code section 2211 sets for the various limitations periods for making them.