Is Annulment in San Mateo right for you?

An annulment or nullification occurs where the party can prove to the Court that the marriage was never valid from the beginning. When a court grants a California annulment, it is as the marriage never existed. This can have a significant affect on whether a party is entitled to spousal support or make claims that property acquired by the parties during their invalid marriage is community property.

San Mateo courts will grant an annulment (nullification) if the party can prove to that there were certain irregularities in the formalities that surround the formation of a valid marriage contract, e.g., license, solemnization or authentication of the marriage contract, or certain legal impediments (e.g., incest, bigamy, marriage by force or fraud, party under the legal age of consent, unsound mind, physical incapacity) which, even though the marriage was formally authorized, render the marriage void or voidable. If you are granted an annulment, it is as though your marriage never existed. You may be able to get an annulment if you married when you were a minor without the consent of your parents or guardian, or if certain types of fraud or deceit were involved. If you want an annulment, however, you will have to appear in court for a trial.

Many times people may allege fraud to prove an annulment, but annulment in California requires more than an ordinary finding of fraud. The fraud has to go to the essence of the marital relationship and directly affected the purpose of the deceived party in consenting to entering into the marital contract. A finding of fraud enough to nullify a marriage cannot be based solely on the fact that the spouse changed from a prince into a frog.

Parties to an invalid marriage contract do not have the same community property rights or spousal support obligations imposed on parties to valid marriage. If the marriage is found invalid, then there generally is no community property to divide. The exception to this is where a party to an invalid marriage has what is called “putative spouse” status—which simply means that spouse had a reasonable good-faith belief that the marriage was valid upon its formation. If the spouse has putative spouse status, then that party will have community property rights and spousal support rights and obligations similar to those of a party to a valid marriage.

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