If you find yourself in a marriage that you quickly realize was a mistake, you might be eligible to undergo the marriage annulment process. This legal procedure entails filing a case in a Texas family court, seeking a judge’s declaration that your marriage was invalid due to pre-existing issues and reasons. Unlike divorce, which dissolves a marriage, annulment declares that the marriage never legally existed. It’s not merely the end of a marriage but a legal acknowledgment that it never truly began.
If you file for an annulment and the annulment request is granted then you and your spouse would no longer be married. What you need to look at is what the impacts of the annulment may be on your life and that of your spouse. As in a divorce scenario, you need to be aware of what impacts a marriage- even if invalid- can potentially have on your property and your children. For that reason, not only is time of the essence when it comes to an annulment but so also is your ability to understand the important issues of your case and a willingness to make moves to protect your rights during this process.
Swift annulment filing advice
Filing for an annulment is not something that you should sit around and wait on. If you think that you qualify for an annulment it is best to learn whether or not you have a legitimate case for an annulment and then go ahead and move forward to file, the annulment with a family court that would have jurisdiction over your case. Since there are so many moving pieces that are a part of this process it makes a great deal of sense to go ahead and start to prepare as diligently as possible for doing so.
Hiring an experienced family law attorney is a great place to start. To increase your chances of success in filing an annulment, consult one of the experienced family law attorneys at the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. They can provide insight into your eligibility and the likelihood of a successful outcome. You can also learn more about the other issues that are often relevant to an annulment.
Are an annulment and a divorce the same thing?
A divorce and an annulment are not the same things. A divorce will end a legally valid marriage. A family court judge declares in an annulment process that you were never married. If granted, the annulment nullifies the marriage, making it as if the ceremony never occurred, and you were never wed. While people going through a divorce may wish that this was also the case in their divorce, that is not how divorce works.
Children and their impact on an annulment
If you adopted children or had children born during your marriage, you need to file a Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship (SAPCR) along with your annulment petition. A SAPCR addresses child custody when the parents were never married. If your request for an annulment goes through, you will still need to handle the subject matter related to your children. This will thus be a joint annulment and custody lawsuit that you will be walking into. More reason, in our opinion for you to consider hiring an experienced family law attorney with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan.
Custody, conservatorship, visitation, possession, child support any other subjects are all part of a SAPCR. When discussing your case with an attorney, mention that you have minor children who need to be involved in the case. This will impact your approach to the annulment and other considerations throughout the case.
How quickly after moving to Texas can I file for an annulment?
If you and your spouse married in Texas, you can file for an annulment here regardless of how long you’ve lived in Texas. However, if you married in another state and now live in Texas, at least one of you must live in Texas. Typically, one of you must have been a Texas resident for at least six months and a resident of the county where you will file the annulment for at least 90 days. If these jurisdictional requirements are not met, a family court judge cannot issue orders granting or denying your annulment request.
Finding yourself in a situation where you need to have child custody orders issued quickly regarding your child but not having met the jurisdictional requirements of Texas family courts is a difficult position to find yourself in. This may mean that you need to file your annulment and child custody case in another state or file your child custody case in another state while you wait to file for your annulment in Texas.
Luckily, unlike in a divorce case, there is no waiting period that a judge must follow to grant you an annulment. For instance, you could file your petition to annul your marriage on one day and have the court grant your request the following day. However, bear in mind that you would have to have a hearing to have your annulment granted which can usually take a few weeks from the date on which he requests to go before the judge. Do not plan for your annulment case to be over within fewer than a few weeks at least.
What are the grounds for annulment in Texas?
There are several ways that you can successfully argue that an annulment should be granted in your case. The first is that either you or your spouse were under the age of 18 when the marriage took place. This is a straightforward argument to make where you would need to present your birth certificate to show you were under 18 when the marriage began. Or you would allege that your spouse was under 18 and then ask the court to verify her age on an official government document such as a birth certificate.
The next ground for annulment that we see quite frequently in movies and television shows is that either you or your spouse was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time you got married. A humorous example of this situation would be if the two of you, after a long night out on the town, wandered into a 24-hour wedding Chapel and got married. If you were unable to form the proper consent to getting married, then an annulment may be possible in your situation.
Grounds for annulment: duress, fraud, capacity
Another circumstance that we sometimes see depicted in television shows or movies is the stereotypical shotgun wedding where the father of the bride forces a man to marry his daughter after impregnating her. The scene that should be familiar to most of us is the potential groom walking down the aisle with the angry father-in-law either directly behind him or somewhere in the crowd looking on menacingly. If you or your spouse were convinced to get married due to fraud, duress, or force then this is a potential ground for annulment.
Do you or your spouse lack the mental capacity required for marriage? Did you understand that you were getting married? Did you understand the ramifications that are part of this process? The responsibilities? More than that, do you have the mental acuity to care for yourself, and your spouse or take care of your activities of daily living? If not then you probably do not have the mental abilities to consent to a marriage and therefore an annulment may be a distinct possibility for you.
Undisclosed prior marriages in Texas
Were you married previously but did not disclose that to your current spouse? Did you keep a prior divorce a secret from your spouse? Did your spouse do the same to you? In Texas, this is a ground for an annulment. Proving that you were unaware of a prior divorce is another can of worms altogether. Often this ground for divorce ends up being a situation where you and your spouse engage in a spirited, he said/she didn’t say the type of situation where your spouse swears that she told you that she was divorced previously. On the other hand, you would swear just as much that you had no idea of the divorce.
Finally, in Texas, you must wait at least 72 hours to get married after gaining a marriage license from your county clerk. This is important. If you get married within three days of obtaining your marriage license, then your marriage can be annulled. Check the dates on the marriage license and the date on which you got married. Within three days means you have grounds for an annulment. Whether you and your spouse plan ahead to get a license can make a big difference in this regard.
What do you need to do if you do not qualify for an annulment?
There are two paths for you to go down if you do not qualify for an annulment. The first would be a typical divorce that you see us write about on our website and hear about all over town from friends, family, and co-workers. If an annulment is not in your future, it is probably because none of the above circumstances applied to you. As such, if you do not want to continue being married then you should plan on getting a divorce.
Divorce
A divorce begins with filing an Original Petition for Divorce in the county where you have resided for at least the past ninety days and after having resided in Texas for at least the preceding 6 months. The divorce can be filed in either your county of residence or that of your spouse if you and he/she are not living together. Your spouse would then file an Answer to your Petition and the two of you would then engage in the divorce negotiations that you hear about so much in our world today. Splitting up time with the kids and your property are the two primary parts of a divorce.
The Final Decree of Divorce is the final document in a Texas divorce case. It contains your marching orders- the orders signed off on by a judge that will tell you exactly how to divide your marital property as well as how your child’s time will be divided between you and your co-parent. You need to be very familiar with these orders and learn them well. Not only for your well-being but for that of your children. Working together with your ex-spouse on co-parenting issues will be a post-case scenario that you should focus on as well. Just because your marriage is ending does not mean another relationship is not beginning- the co-parenting relationship.
Suit to declare the marriage void
The other method of ending your marriage is a process called a suit to declare the marriage void. This is a valid legal process in Texas but is not as widely utilized as a divorce. A suit to declare a marriage void is a legal process where your marriage is determined to be void from the beginning which would bar a valid marriage relationship from forming. From this angle, a suit to declare a marriage void may be very similar to that of an annulment.
What is a putative spouse?
A putative spouse is one where a person, in good faith, believes that he or she is entering into a valid marriage because he or she did not know of the facts that caused the marriage to be void. Good faith belief can be determined in part by considering the marriage documents, divorce documents, marriage ceremony events, whether you and your spouse lived together, and the age of the putative spouse. If you are very young and are a putative spouse, then this will be a point in your favor.
Being a putative spouse in the eyes of a court is important, especially in the division of marital property. The community property laws of Texas do not apply to non-marital relationships. If you and your boyfriend break up then the community property laws of Texas do not apply to the house you purchased during your marriage, your retirement savings contributed to during the marriage, or any other property acquired during the marriage. This can be disastrous for a putative spouse who in good faith believed that you have been involved in a valid marriage.
A putative spouse holds the same property rights as an actual spouse. This means that you are eligible for spousal maintenance and for community property laws to apply to the property acquired during the marriage. When it comes to children’s issues then a SAPCR would need to be filed along with the suit to declare a marriage void.
Grounds to declare a marriage void
In a suit to declare a marriage void, if you are the petitioning party then you will want to familiarize yourself with the following grounds for declaring the marriage void. The first is incest. If you and your spouse are related to each other by a common ancestor or descendant, half or whole brother or sister, or half or whole aunt, uncle, niece, or nephew then your marriage is void.
Bigamy is another ground for declaring your marriage void. If you or your spouse were still married when you all tied the knot, then your most recent marriage is void. If you are the spouse who has filed a suit to declare a marriage void then you need to prove that your spouse was married before and that the earlier marriage did not end by death, divorce, or annulment. You would have to show that your spouse’s first spouse was still alive and did not die on the date that you all got married. Additionally, you would need to prove that you looked for a divorce or annulment in every county that your spouse has lived in previously.
There are moving pieces going on here whether you have filed for annulment, divorce or to declare a marriage void. When you are dealing with unfamiliar subject matter as well as high stakes for you, your children, and the property you are best off working with an experienced Texas family law attorney.
Conclusion
For those who find themselves in marriages they quickly realize were mistakes, the marriage annulment process in Texas offers a legal recourse. Through this process, individuals can seek a judge’s declaration that their marriage was invalid due to pre-existing issues and reasons. Unlike divorce, which terminates a marriage, annulment asserts that the marriage never legally existed. It provides a pathway for individuals to move forward with clarity and legal acknowledgment that the marriage was not valid from its inception.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law as well as about how your family’s circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case.
Other Related Articles:
- How an Annulment Is Different Than a Divorce in Texas
- Common Myths About Annulment and Divorce in Texas
- The Role of Mediation in Annulment Proceedings
- Timeline of an Annulment: What to Expect During the Process
- Annulment vs. Nullity: Understanding Terminology in Family Law
- Annulment Adventures: Texas Law Revealed!
- Legally Erasing ‘I Do’: Annulment in the Lone Star State
- International Annulments: Rules for Cross-Border Marriages
- Vanishing Vows: Your Guide to Texas Annulment
- Annulment Papers and Child Custody: What To Expect
Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.
Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.
His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.
Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.
