What is an annulment?
An annulment in the legal sense is NOT the same thing as an annulment in the religious sense. A legal annulment means that the marriage was invalid from its inception and there are very limited grounds upon which this can be granted. The most common ground is bigamy. Property division may or may not be different than it would be in divorce, depending upon your circumstances and whether or not you knew of the grounds for annulment when you entered (or remained in) the marriage. (Annulment is also sometimes called nullity.
In some states, courts will grant an annulment of a marriage which declares that a marriage was never valid. In Alaska there is no court action called an annulment, but a court may declare a marriage void for any of the following causes: • One of the parties is already married to someone else • The parties are more closely related to each other than third cousins • One of the parties was a minor and their parents or guardian did not consent to the marriage • Either party was of unsound mind • One party caused the other party to fraudulently consent to the marriage • One party caused the other party to consent to the marriage by force • Failure to have sexual relations But if the parties voluntarily lived together as husband and wife after • the minor party reached the legal age, or • the partys mental state improved, or • the party learned of the fraud, or • being forced to get married, or • had sexual relations there would not be grounds to ask the court to declare the marriage void.
