whats the difference between these and why do some people choose one over another?
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Chief’s Domain
my understanding
Divorce=legal proceeding
Annullment= church recognized proceeding
According to a coworker, in the Catholic church, divorces aren’t recognized as the dissolution of a marriage (they also believe that marriages cannot be dissolved). Therefore, if you were to remarry in the Catholic church after a divorce that is the equivalent of having two spouses, a practice which for some unknowable reason is frowned upon.
The solution, annullment. The first marriage never happened, therefore there is nothing to dissolve.
I don’t know the circumstances under which the Church will grant annullment, but I imagine short duration and no children are important considerations
Well…sometimes I get the menstrual cramps real hard–Raising Arizona
annulment means the contract (of any kind) was invalid in the first place. If I selll you my house and it later turns out it was not my house, that contract would be annuled, meaning it is like it never took place. A marriage would be annuled for any reason that would make it invalid under the laws that govern it (lay or religious. If you discover you married your sister by mistake, the marriage would be annuled, you would not get a divorce which means the marriage was valid and is now being dissolved. They are different concepts.
The Roman catholic Church does not recognize divorce but will annul a marriage for valid reasons. The problem is that they give the impression that if you have good money and good lawyers you can get an annulment with justifications that are pretty much made up and therefore it is pretty much a covert divorce for sale to the wealthy.
Annullments aren’t limited to the catholic church.
An annullment erases the whole deal, as if it never happened.
However, any Catholic can get an annullment for the right price. Didn’t Joe Kennedy the 3rd have his marriage annulled after 12 years and two kids? I saw the ex-wife on a tv show, she was furious that the church said there, in effect, was no marriage.
lindsay
I’m almost finished with my annulment. I’m not a churchie, but I wanted it official that the marriage was a fraud and therefore legally should be made null and void. To me, divorce implies that there are two sides to every arguement, etc. This was done to me, and I don’t want it reflecting any worse on me than it already has. I call him my un-husband instead of my ex, haha!
A girl
Yes, an anullment is not only for the Catholic church. In most states, you would get an anullment instead of a divorce if you could prove that the wedding was somehow invalid, such as the guy wasn’t an ordained minister, or the groom was drunk and didn’t know what he was doing - stuff like that.
You can also get an anullment in North Carolina if your spouse is declared insane.
Though I had the law on my side, I opted simply to get divorced… It was easier than having my ex comitted! 
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My marriage was annulled in California (where I got married). For an annullment in CA, you have to show cause, whereas you can get divorced just for wanting to.
By a lucky chance, my ex-wife had never officially terminated her first marriage. Rather than put that down as the cause of annullment (which might have exposed her to bigamy charges), we agreed to put down fraud and make up a plausible excuse (technically accurate so I wasn’t committing perjury). The judge was pretty lenient and allowed it and granted the annullment.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
IIRC, in California ca. 1990, the acceptable reasons for an annullment (those on the form at least) were:
[ul][li]fraud[/li][li]previous existing marriage[/li][li]one of the parties underage[/li][li]insanity[/ul][/li]
There may have been others, but I don’t remember them.
Speaking of annullment and divorce–
Last I heard, the multi-millionaire bride was seeking an annullment in CA. The contract made with Fox TV said that either party could seek an annullment within a year.
But, the Fox network is not the state of CA. Aparrently, the court/judge (?) has said that she has no grounds to get an annullment because none of the conditions for annullment were met. (SingleDad’s list sounds about right.) And the marriage apparently does not meet the condition of “fraud” according to the court.
As Nelson on the Simpsons would say: Hah-hah!
This is not so.
I don’t know the merits of the Kennedy case, but I assure you that a blanket statement such as you made has the same accuracy as, “Any person can get away with murder if he has enough money for lawyers.” While it may be true in certain unfortunate cases, it does <b>not</b> accurately describe the state of the law or the reality of its application. There are plenty of rich people in jail for murder, and plenty of disaffected Catholics who tried and failed to gain annullments, even though they were willing to spend - indeed, did spend - considerable sums of money in the attempt.
- Rick
In case anyone is wondering, this is the Amazon review of Sheila Kennedy’s book on the subject:
(Too-long URL deleted by manhattan)
[Note: This message has been edited by manhattan]
Let’s try this:
(too-long url deleted by manhattan. Thanks, Chronos
If that doesn’t work, I quit.
That what does not kill me, postpones the inevitable.
[Note: This message has been edited by manhattan]
Shirley: I believe you were trying to do this ? When linking long addresses, it’s best to use the UBB code for that purpose, using the url and /url tags, otherwise it stretches the board sideways. An example: If you type {url=http://www.straightdope.com}The Straight Dope Web Page{/url} , except replace the {} with , the result is this: The Straight Dope Web Page . Got that?
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