When it comes to filing for divorce, you know you have a few options on how to go about it. There’s no-fault, at-fault, or annulment. While annulling marriage is not technically a means of divorce, it does dissolve a marriage. Therefore, it typically gets lumped in with the other options. However, this route is a bit different than your other ones. So, we’re going to help you understand it, and the grounds required to file for an annulment. However, it’s important to know that they are extremely rare in practice, and South Carolina has some pretty narrow requirements surrounding them.
Annulling Marriage in SC: What it is, and How you Qualify?
What is an annulment? And how does it differ from divorce?
This route differs from a divorce, because a divorce ends a valid marriage. However, if annulling marriage, you are stating that a valid marriage never occurred due to a defect. However, it’s hard to prove that a marriage isn’t valid. In SC, there are few grounds for claiming a marriage isn’t valid. One condition is that the parties never cohabitated, or lived together. They never shared a bed, and they never had intimate relations. In South Carolina law, even one day of cohabitation can validate a marriage and invalidate annulment options.
Causes
Grounds include: fraud, not being of legal age, being of a mental state where you could not make an informed decision, or being forced into the marriage in some way. If one spouse is claiming fear as a means of annulling the marriage, the threat must cause a ‘fear of bodily harm that lasted throughout the whole process of marriage’. Fraud is when one party lied about something essential to the marriage. The distorted issue must be something that makes the martial duties impossible. A few common examples of fraudulent lies in SC include: hiding insanity, and impotency. Although, even if a spouse can prove fraud, annulment isn’t possible if they cohabitated.
Annulment, as you can see, requires a special set of circumstances, and most divorces don’t fall into that category. Therefore, while this is worth looking into, most couples will merely qualify for a divorce. However, we highly encourage vetting all of your options with your attorney. By doing so, you will be able to consider any and all possibilities for your separation.