Annulment of Marriage in Maryland

How to Get an Annulment of Marriage in Maryland

What is annulment? You can see many people in Maryland asking this question, because the general norm for the absolute opposite of marriage is simply this: divorce.

But divorce is not annulment. In fact, annulment is completely different.

The Basics for an Annulment of Marriage in Maryland

Let’s put it this way: a divorce in Maryland is dissolution, whereas an annulment of marriage in Maryland is nothing more than an erasure. That’s the difference between a divorce and an annulment of marriage in Maryland.

Divorce dissolves a marriage; an annulment of marriage in Maryland makes it so that the marriage never occurred in the first place.

What That Means to a Married Couple

That therefore means a married couple – if pursuing an annulment of marriage in Maryland – won’t be legally labeled as divorced. It would be as if they’re still unmarried.

No alimony would be allowed under the law when figuring out how to do an annulment of a marriage. Because by law alimony is part of divorce. If children are involved, an annulment wouldn’t by law enforce parenting time or child support at all.

That simply means one parent can’t expect by law the other parent to pay anything for child support according to standard divorce law; and by law a parent can’t enforce any parenting time either, because technically the marriage never existed, therefore the divorce never existed, which would apply the visitation rights and such. How to do an annulment of a marriage is that easy.

What Are the Grounds for Annulment of Marriage?

This is important to know on how to do an annulment of a marriage. Why? Since both an annulment and divorce are different, so are the requirements for it.

Here are the typical grounds for annulment of marriage in Maryland:

1. Marriage Fraud Due to Criminal History, Impotence, STDs

2. One Party Was ‘Mentally Incapable’ of Knowingly Entering Into a Marriage

3. Consanguinity

4. Threatened to Enter Into Marriage

5. One Party Was Already Married

6. One Party was Impotent

As you can see – completely different from the grounds for divorce when learning how to do an annulment of a marriage. These grounds for annulment of marriage are pretty specific. But they have to be in order to know how to do an annulment of a marriage. To erase the legal event of a marriage is a big deal when considering grounds for annulment of marriage.

So if someone wanted to know how to do an annulment of a marriage, it’s important to have the very best reason for it first. Any one of those six grounds for annulment of marriage would apply.

What Is “Marriage Fraud”?

When determining the grounds for annulment of marriage, it’s important to know that the deciding factor is a form of deceit. You can call it ‘marriage fraud.’

If the other spouse found out later of the person’s criminal history, that spouse actually has grounds for annulment of marriage simply due to dishonesty. In addition, if a supposed spouse lied about something like an STD or impotency, the other spouse can legally find out how to do an annulment of a marriage and proceed accordingly.

Knowing how to do an annulment of a marriage is about as easy as noticing that your partner didn’t have any knowledge of being married. That’s the legal definition, from a certain point of view, of what it means to be ‘mentally incapable’ of entering into that marriage.

Examples would be:

1. Insanity

2. Intoxication

Anything that would render a person unable to make those decisions and/or realize where he or she is. The person would end up realizing that he or she is now married without remembering a thing and would simply find out how to do an annulment of a marriage within minutes and file accordingly. Pretty easy. In many ways, easier than divorce.

When figuring how to do an annulment of a marriage, know that one obvious requirement would be consanguinity.

If you find out that you’ve married your cousin, you can legally pursue an annulment pretty quickly.

Being forced into marriage is also another way to get an annulment as well as the fact that your supposed spouse actually already is married. That falls in line with deceit, of course.