Annulment vs. Divorce: An annulment is a legal procedure to declare that a marriage never occurred. Unlike a divorce, which legally ends a marriage, an annulment is an adjudication that the parties were never legally married.
Annulment Qualifications
In Wisconsin, a court may grant a judgment of divorce if one party believes the marriage is irretrievably broken. By contrast, a court may only grant an annulment for limited qualifying events.
These may include:
- One party was pressured into marriage by force, duress, or fraud involving the essentials of marriage
- A lack of consent (due to age, mental incapacity, or infirmity or because of the influence of alcohol, drugs, or other incapacitating substances)
- A lack of physical capacity to consummate the marriage (and the other spouse was unaware at the time of marriage)
An annulment on the grounds stated above must be filed within one year of learning about the qualifying event. For example, a spouse has one year to file for annulment after finding out that their spouse is unable to consummate the marriage, regardless of the date of marriage.
If one spouse is 16 or 17 years old at the time of marriage and doesn’t have parental consent, the child spouse needs to file for annulment prior to age 18. The parent or guardian of a child spouse must request an annulment within one year of learning about the marriage to qualify for an annulment.
The final reason a court may grant an annulment is if the marriage is prohibited by Wisconsin law. For example, if one spouse is still legally married at the time of the wedding, the second marriage would be prohibited by Wisconsin law. Generally, an annulment for this reason must be filed within 10 years of the date of marriage. The 10-year filing requirement does not apply where the marriage is prohibited by law because one spouse has another living spouse at the time of marriage.
Filing for an Annulment in Wisconsin?
One of the most common reasons a request for annulment is denied is because the request does not meet the qualifications above. If you meet the criteria and were denied, look to see if you filed for an annulment within one year of your qualification.
If it was over a year, you likely missed the short window to qualify for an annulment. Contact one of our family law attorneys at Doar, Drill and Skow for a no-obligation consultation to see if an annulment or divorce is right for you.