Annulment is an interesting and surprisingly complex issue in the world of divorce. There are a number of common misconceptions surrounding it, and the hope is that this short article will help make the issue clearer.
First, it’s important to understand that there are actually two kinds of annulments: those issued by the state (a legal annulment) and those issued by a church (a religious annulment). This article will be dealing with the notion of legal annulments.

A legal annulment is a decree which makes it as though your marriage never happened. There are only a few instances in which a legal annulment will be granted, but in those cases, it’s absolutely an option. For any marriage that falls outside the bounds of the cases mentioned below, annulment is not an option. Here are the instances in which it’s possible to get a legal annulment:

• Mental Capacity – If it can be demonstrated that one (or both) spouses lacked the mental capacity to understand the implications of the marriage.
• Coercion – If one party of the marriage was forced or coerced into it.
• Fraud – If the marriage was entered into under fraudulent circumstances or false pretenses
• Youth – If one (or both) of the married parties is under the age of consent
• Incest – If the married parties are closely related to each other (siblings, cousins, etc.)
• One of the spouses was already married – Obviously, in this case, the marriage is considered to be void right off the bat, and a legal annulment can be granted.

As you can see, legal annulments are somewhat rare, and are only possible in a fairly narrow range of circumstances. If you’re currently married, and one or more of the circumstances above describes your situation, a legal annulment is not only possible, but likely. In either case, you should double check with an experienced divorce attorney first, just to make sure that no stone is left unturned.