Why Hiring a Lawyer is Essential for Obtaining an Annulment in Florida
On this page: What Is Marriage Annulment in Florida? | Divorce Vs. Annulment in Florida | Is an Annulment Lawyer the Same as a Divorce Lawyer? | Florida Annulment Requirements | An Annulment Case in FL From the Local News Headlines | The Bottom Line on Marriage Annulment in Florida | Contact Sean Smallwood About Marriage Annulment in Orlando, FL | What Our Clients Say
What Is Marriage Annulment in Florida? Insights from an Experienced Annulment Attorney
An annulment in Florida is a legal process handled by the court system, where a judge declares that a marriage was never legally valid. Once the annulment is granted, both parties are returned to their previous unmarried status, as if the marriage never legally existed.
For a marriage to qualify for annulment, it must be deemed either void or voidable. A void marriage is one that is inherently invalid and not recognized by law—such as those involving bigamy or incest. A voidable marriage, on the other hand, is initially considered valid but can be annulled under specific legal grounds.
Grounds for annulment in Florida include fraud, coercion, lack of consent, mental incapacity, or temporary insanity at the time of marriage. In such cases, one or both spouses may file a petition with the court, often with the help of an experienced annulment attorney, to initiate the annulment process.
If the court finds the evidence satisfactory, it may grant the annulment, legally confirming that the relationship never constituted a valid marital status under Florida law.
Divorce Vs. Annulment in Florida
A marriage annulment in Florida is not the same thing as divorce. The term annulment literally means “to make void.”
- An annulment voids the marriage, meaning after the annulment is processed, it will be like it never took place.
- A divorce ends the marriage, essentially dissolving the contract between you & your spouse.
There is no division of property or alimony for annulments in the state of Florida.
In accordance with Florida’s annulment law, there is no particular legal provision for the formal annulment of marriage under family law.
Is an Annulment Lawyer in Orlando the Same as a Divorce Lawyer? Understanding the Differences
Imagine finding yourself trapped in a nightmare where you’re married to the worst spouse you could ever imagine. Your spouse sabotages your finances, engages in infidelity, and spreads hurtful lies about you to your children. Now, imagine discovering that you and your nightmare partner were never truly married in the first place.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just waking up from a bad dream and realizing everything that happened was fictional. The reality is more complex, even when your marriage is legally void or voidable. In these cases, the relationship might not be recognized by the law, but that doesn’t mean the aftermath is any less difficult to navigate.
Even if the marriage itself is not legally valid, you and your so-called spouse may still share children and jointly own property. This complicates matters, as there are still legal obligations that need to be addressed. While the dissolution of a void or voidable marriage is referred to as an annulment—not a divorce—the legal process shares many of the same complexities. You’ll still need to address issues such as custody, property division, and support, just like in a traditional divorce.
An annulment can offer a fresh start, but the emotional and legal challenges can be just as overwhelming as those experienced in a divorce. Seeking advice from an experienced annulment attorney can help you navigate the legal process and ensure that your rights are protected as you move forward.
So while they have two different outcomes, an annulment lawyer and a divorce lawyer in Orlando near you are the same.
Therefore, you should still talk with an Orlando, FL annulment lawyer near you to help legally annul your marriage, especially if you and your spouse have children and own property together.
Florida Annulment Requirements
You have probably heard of marriage annulment before. Some famous examples from history influence our perception of marriage annulment, and while they are likely to be very different from your annulment case, they still highlight some key features of annulment.
The most famous example is the controversy that arose in the 16th century when King Henry VIII of England tried to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.
Before she married Henry, Catherine had been married to Henry’s older brother Arthur, who died several months after their wedding.
Henry tried to persuade the Church to annul his marriage to Catherine on the grounds that the Church does not or should not recognize a marriage between a man and his brother’s widow; he cited a verse from the Biblical Book of Leviticus to support his argument.
Catherine responded that her marriage to Henry was valid because she had never consummated her marriage to Arthur. In other words, her marriage to Arthur had annulled itself before she married Henry.
Keep in mind that, in legal terms, an annulment means that the marriage never existed.
Another famous marriage annulment from history is that of the painter Effie Gray and the art critic John Ruskin; they married in 1848 but annulled their marriage six years later without having consummated it.
Effie would go on to have eight children with her second husband, John Millais.
In recent decades, it has been the court’s practice to stay out of people’s bedrooms.
The court will never ask you whether you have consummated your marriage, and if so, your answer would have no bearing on whether the court granted you an annulment.
The most common reason for a marriage annulment in the United States is that one spouse had not finalized their divorce from a previous marriage before marrying their current spouse.
In some cases, one spouse intentionally misled the other into thinking that they were free to remarry. In other cases, it was an honest mistake.
Annulment cases often involve previous marriages solemnized in other countries.
For example, the previously married spouse might have left their home country after filing for divorce and might have assumed that the divorce went through and that they could enter into a new marriage in another country.
An Annulment Case in FL From the Local News Headlines
Alan Grayson, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, married his wife Lolita in 1986, and the couple resided in Florida and had five children together. Four years after they married, Lolita applied for U.S. citizenship.
On a question on her citizenship application that asked about her marriage to her first husband, whom she had told Alan that she had divorced, she wrote “separated.”
Still, Alan and Lolita Grayson remained married for many more years. They filed for divorce in 2014, at which point a judge ruled that their marriage had never been legally valid. The court annulled their marriage in 2015.
Call it a divorce or an annulment, but Alan and Lolita Grayson were a longtime couple who had raised children together and owned considerable assets.
Their oldest child was an adult by the time the marriage was annulled, but the court entered a parenting plan and child support order for the other four children.
Lolita Grayson sought alimony from her children’s father, but the court denied her request because there had never been a legally valid marriage.
The Bottom Line on Marriage Annulment in Florida
An annulment does not strip you of your rights or obligations as a parent. You will still retain your parental rights, including custody and visitation. Additionally, an annulment does not eliminate your right to a share of the property you jointly owned with your ex-partner.
However, what an annulment does change is the way the division of property is approached.
In a marriage, any income earned and most property acquired during the union is automatically considered marital property, even if only one spouse’s name appears on the bank account or title. In an annulment, these assumptions do not apply. If there was no legally valid marriage, there is no marital property. This means that you may have to fight for every asset you believe you are entitled to, and it is critical to have an experienced annulment attorney by your side to guide you through this process.
Moreover, an amicable annulment is often harder to achieve than an amicable divorce. The emotional weight of discovering that your spouse has been deceiving you while you built a life together—raising children, sharing finances, and accumulating wealth—can be profound.
In these situations, the best path toward a fair and equitable resolution is to let your lawyers, not your emotions, handle the negotiations. This can help ensure that you achieve a solution that benefits you, your ex-partner, and your children, while also protecting your legal rights in the process.
Contact Sean Smallwood About Marriage Annulment in Orlando, FL
An annulment can be just as complicated as a divorce, if not more complicated, and it is every bit as important to work with an experienced annulment lawyer.
Contact attorney Sean Smallwood in Orlando, Florida for a consultation near you.
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Sean Smallwood is an Orlando divorce attorney for the law firm Sean Smallwood, Orlando Divorce & Family Law P.A. where he represents clients in all areas of family law and divorce. 100% of the practice is devoted to family law. As an attorney in Orlando, he has helped many families with a wide variety of family law cases including Divorce, Child Custody, Child Support, and many other issues.
