Many couples who wish to end their marriage do not have to obtain a divorce, but can instead file for an annulment. However, there are only a few specific justifications for annulling a marriage, one of which is that one of the parties was underage at the time of the marriage. Filing for an annulment is complicated, so if you have questions about annulling your marriage or the marriage of your underage child, it is important to contact an experienced divorce attorney who can explain your legal options.

Underage Marriage

Until recently, Texas law allowed parents to consent to the marriage of their child as long as the minor was at least 16 years old. This was true even if one of the child’s parents did not consent to the marriage. Furthermore, a parent could consent to the marriage of a child of any age as long as a judge approved. Governor Abbott recently signed a new bill into law which prohibits people who are under the age of 18 years old from getting married unless they are emancipated minors. In Texas, minors are only permitted to file for emancipation if they are 16 years old, so now the youngest age that a person can get married in Texas is 16 years old.

In some cases, separating couples are not required to go through the time-consuming process of a divorce, but instead can obtain an annulment. However, courts do not grant no-fault annulments, which means that in order to obtain an annulment, a couple must demonstrate that a marriage was void or voidable. Although annulling a marriage can save time and money in the long run, it is not the best course of action for every couple, so if you are considering ending your marriage, it is crucial to contact an experienced complex divorce attorney who can explain your options.

Void Marriages

In Texas, annulments can be used to invalidate two types of marriages, those that are considered void and those that are voidable. Void marriages are those that were never legal, which in Texas means that they were either incestuous or bigamous in nature. Most bigamy-related annulments involve situations where a party did not wait the required 30 days after the finalization of a divorce before marrying someone else. In these types of cases, the new spouse could legally annul the marriage. However, he or she would only have until the couple’s one year anniversary to do so.

Often, the question of how a divorce differs from an annulment arises. Put simply, a divorce is a legal process that results in the marital bonds being severed. An annulment, on the other hand, is a legal process that results in the marriage being invalidated, as though it never existed in the eyes of the law.

In today's society, divorces are by far the more common method of terminating a marriage. With divorce, however, there is a presumption that the marriage was valid and any assets acquired during the marriage belong to the marital estate, which means that the judge will divide the assets equitably between the parties

If the judge grants an annulment, however, the marriage was not valid from the beginning, which means that there never was a marital estate, and the parties may get to keep their respective assets.