How can I get my Vegas wedding annulled?

An annulment is a legal action that renders a marriage null and void. The result is as though the marriage never occurred. This avoids many of the issues surrounding a regular divorce like proving grounds, dividing property or providing spousal maintenance. However, if there are marital children, an annulment will be harder to obtain.

There are several legal reasons to seek an annulment such as when the spouses are close blood relatives, when one spouse suffers mental illness or insanity, if one spouse was married to someone else at the time of the marriage, if the marriage occurred under fraudulent circumstances such as one spouse withholding information regarding his or her HIV status or impotence.

Getting an Annulment

Procedurally, an annulment differs from a divorce, even though both are processes for marriage dissolution. Also, a civil annulment should not be confused with a religious annulment, which may occur alongside a civil annulment but only addresses the ramifications of the marriage dissolution within a given religious community. From a legal standing, a religious annulment carries little or no influence.

The process and laws applicable to civil annulment will vary from state to state. However, the following outlines some of the common grounds for annulment in many states and explains the outcome of the process for each party involved.

• The most common grounds for an annulment include fraud or misrepresentation which may include a variety of circumstances, including lies told by one spouse to another prior to the marriage, failure to disclose previous marriages, failure to disclose other children, or other deceptions.
• Concealment, which slightly overlaps fraud or misrepresentation, is another ground for annulment in most states. Common examples include failure to disclose a criminal history (usually felony convictions, but also, can include crimes of violence, sex crimes, and crimes involving children), failure to disclose medical conditions (most notably sexually transmitted diseases, but other serious, chronic conditions also are relevant), concealment of impotency, or concealment of ongoing mental health issues, usually addiction related.
• Refusal to consummate the marriage, including the inability to consummate a marriage via sexual intercourse, is still grounds for annulment is many states.
• Another relatively vague grounds for annulment found in most states includes misunderstanding. As noted, a misunderstanding giving grounds for annulment can virtually cover any number of disagreements arising in the marriage, but often center around intentions to raise children, employment related, and other major disputes, which otherwise would have prevented the marriage in the first place, had they been recognized.
• Legal incapacity is another ground for an annulment. If two persons cannot legally marry (blood relations, one spouse not of legal age, party(ies) mentally incapacitated with intoxicants at the time of the marriage), the basically "illegal" marriage may be resolved.

Talk with an attorney to discuss under which grounds you can have your wedding annulled.