Marriage Anullment - Anyone Any Experience Or Knowledge Of It?

Dougal O

Hi.

I've read the citizens information pages on anullment, and I think I understand what it's about.

How common is it as an alternative to separation or divorce?

How costly is it in comparison to separation or divorce?

If anyone can post any helpful links, I'd apreciate it.


Thanks.

Wisco

I'm pretty sure it's not a legal way to end a marriage- think it has to do with the church only and is not legally binding. I'm no solicitor though, so I could be wrong there.
As far as I know, you have to go down the separation/divorce road if you want to make it legal.

fayer

It is a legal way to end a marriage but its only available under very strict conditions. Ask over in legal section for someone to explain it. Its been a few years since I studied it and dont remember the requirements 100%.

IITYWYBMAD

It has no civil consequence, and is basically a declaration, made under Canon Law, that the marraige was not entered into for valid reasons and is therfore considered invalid, but only in the eyes of the church.

Milkmaid

Hi, this is something I looked into for myself..
A legal annulment is completely separate from a Church annulment.
You can have either one without the other. Both apply to the situation at the TIME of marriage, not afterwards.
The legal one is straight forward, but requires certain conditions before applying to court, I was told I could get one (due to ex's mental condition at time of marriage)..however I could not proceed as if the annulment is granted then no maintenance can be got for children of the Null and Void marriage.

A Church (catholic) annulment is much more long and complicated....and more expensive.
Basically you apply to the Tribunal office of the Diocese where you married, they send you paperwork and you put your case forward. It can take from 3 to 10years to get, and requires witnesses..very hard to get and most people give up trying.
Good Luck.

Dougal O

For the purposes of this thread, it's civil anullment I'm asking about, not church.

I believe mediation aims to facilitate the most amicable split possible in a marriage collapse, and that if reqiuired, the mediation agreement can be drawn up by a solicitor as a legally-binding agreement?

If the marriage were to be anulled (rather than separation or divorce being pursued), despite the marriage now never having taken place, could that legally-binding mediation agreement conceiveably allow the two parties to formally agree legal joint guardianship & maintenance of the children?


Thanks.

Milkmaid

In short no..mediation is only to give you a basis to form a legal document i.e the legal separation.
If you have a legally binding separation agreement that a mediator helped facilitate then how can you proceed with an annulment? The fact that you have a Legal Separation agreement means you had to have been married legally at some point..you have in effect agreed you had a legal marriage and now want to separate.
A legal Annulment does not allow for maintenance for children ..guardianship I don't know about .
You would need legal advice from solicitor..there is also a legal section on boards.ie

johnr1

Milkmaid,
I have found it the other way round,
We applied for church anullment about a year and a half ago, and have got confirmation of positive decision by the marriage tribunal in early Feb, now we are waiting to have this rubber stamped by Armagh (catholic bosses operate from there). It cost about a grand and was quite straightforward, so long as both are on the same word/story etc.
Your description of the process is accurate to what we did though.

Legal state anullments are, Im told by my solicitor (25 yrs in family law) VERY hard to get and usually refused.

OP, My solicitor tells me that any seperation agreements no matter how drawn up and signed, are NOT legally binding, and the judge can decide to ignore them later on if one party decides to come back for more. Unfortunately, in this country, nothing is final till there is a divorce, and even then, apparently if one former partner's circumstances change later on, it can all be looked at again.

Interesting point which I only learned recently is that the four year waiting period to application for divorce can start from when the marriage "ended" which can be deemed to be whenever intimate relations/ sleeping together/ ceased, as opposed to when one moved out etc.

Milkmaid

johnr1 wrote: »

Milkmaid,
I have found it the other way round,
We applied for church anullment about a year and a half ago, and have got confirmation of positive decision by the marriage tribunal in early Feb, now we are waiting to have this rubber stamped by Armagh (catholic bosses operate from there). It cost about a grand and was quite straightforward, so long as both are on the same word/story etc.
Your description of the process is accurate to what we did though.

Legal state anullments are, Im told by my solicitor (25 yrs in family law) VERY hard to get and usually refused.

OP, My solicitor tells me that any seperation agreements no matter how drawn up and signed, are NOT legally binding, and the judge can decide to ignore them later on if one party decides to come back for more. Unfortunately, in this country, nothing is final till there is a divorce, and even then, apparently if one former partner's circumstances change later on, it can all be looked at again.

Interesting point which I only learned recently is that the four year waiting period to application for divorce can start from when the marriage "ended" which can be deemed to be whenever intimate relations/ sleeping together/ ceased, as opposed to when one moved out etc.

Hi Johnr1, do you mind me asking if you had to bring witnesses to make your case for church annulment......I have grounds for one but I don't want to bring in friends and family as witnesses..particularly as there are children involved, I would be grateful for any info, thanks

johnr1

Hi Johnr1, do you mind me asking if you had to bring witnesses to make your case for church annulment......I have grounds for one but I don't want to bring in friends and family as witnesses..particularly as there are children involved, I would be grateful for any info, thanks

Hi Milkmaid,
I dont want to derail the thread with my own story, but it might be relevant to someone else reading it (the OP has mentioned that he isn't interested in church annullment).

You both have the option of bringing witnesses, but its not mandatory. Bringing them in is meant to support whatever grounds you are applying under, - and there are several possibilities there.
In our case, she brought about four,- some of whom felt it their job to demonise me and make wild unfounded accusations, which my ex to be fair to her refuted, as did I.
I brought one, my best friend, and he told what he knew, although, as I wouldn't have been discussing what was going on with him at the time, this was'nt too much.

The questions are like: 'How long have you known Milkmaid?' Did Milkmaid have a happy childhood?', 'Do you think Milkmaid and ****** were in love when they got married?' 'How would you describe Milkmaids character?' 'When did you find out there was something wrong?' etc.

You both get to read all the evidence provided by both yourselves and the witnesses, and an opportunity to refute some parts of it or make observations on it.

The witnesses are not told of the grounds being used in the case or of any other evidence. You dont even need to tell them yourself if you dont want to, and the questions refer to it or give any clues.

Overall, it was a fairly painless process, apart from some witnesses wrongly thinking they were helping by spouting bile.

The priest doing the interviews didn't make any judgements or cast aspersions, they seem very sharp and more real world than many of their peers.

One of the most important things for us was that we were on the same word more or less, as it was advantageous to us both that it went through, and in the long game, the stated grounds don't matter a whit in real life. They give you the boxes, just make sure you fit in one of them:)
Hope some of this helps.
John.

Milkmaid

Thanks John,sent you a pm, it just goes to show you can't believe what you hear..good to hear it from someone who's been through it:D