How Can You Get an Annulment?

You may want what we used to call an “Annulment” or what we now call a “Declaration that the Marriage is Invalid” not a Divorce. Maybe you have only been married a week and realize that you made a mistake.

Unfortunately, Declaring a Marriage Invalid is not that simple. 

There are Four Ways to get your Marriage Declared Invalid in Illinois:

1. You must show that one of you was not capable of consenting to the marriage when it happened. You would have to convince a Judge that you lacked capacity to agree to marry because you were so drunk or high on drugs or other substances, you didn’t know what you were doing or maybe you were literally coerced into marrying by extreme force or duress. Maybe the other person defrauded you into marrying them by lying about the very essentials of marriage. We are not talking about exagerating one’s net worth. “The Lie” has to be fraud touching at the very “essentials of marriage”.

2. Your Wife or Husband was not capable of having sex at the time the marriage took place and you did not know of that incapacity.

3. One of you was 16 or 17 and did not have parental consent or the consent of a guardian or judge.

4. The marriage was “prohibited”. Incest is a prohibited marriage. 

Annulments or Declarations that a Marriage is Invalid are not that common but on occasion can be proven. At Gabrielle Davis, PC, we would be happy to explore all options available to you in moving on with your life.