Last Updated on: 22nd June 2025, 08:26 pm

If you lived for several years with the illusion that you were married and find out in the process of divorce that your spouse was still legally married the day you married him or her, you may want to consider an annulment of your marriage. The New York Court defines annulment as a “declaration that states that a marriage was never legally valid.” The New York City Bar Association lists the five reasons for annulment of a marriage, but annulment cases may be quite complex.

Brooklyn Annulments

Our Brooklyn annulment lawyer understands the personal nature of family matters and is actively involved in the Brooklyn community. Our family law lawyer counsels and supports victims of domestic violence. While our law firm prefers dispute resolution on child custody, child support, and visitation, our annulment lawyer is equally skilled at drafting motions, challenging complex legal problems, and developing mediation strategies.

The Five Grounds for Annulment

The New York City Bar Association lists the following reasons for an annulment of a marriage:

• Underage spouse
• Low cognitive spouse
• Spouse’s mental illness
• Unable to consumate
• Married under duress

Parental Option

If a minor below the age of lawful consent marries, the minor’s parents can have their child’s marriage annulled if they were not consulted in the decision to marry. In New York City, individuals under the age of 18 years-old need written consent of both of their parents to marry. A judge’s approval in the form of a signed court order is also required for the minor to marry. If both parents and a judge did not approve of the marriage, the minor’s parents can have their child’s marriage annulled.

Marriage Under Duress

Marriage under duress may be a marriage to avoid deportation or to satisfy immigration laws. If a women tells you she is pregnant with your child and you later find out the baby is not your child, you may be able to have your marriage annulled because you were coerced under false pretenses to marry. If your spouse is diagnosed mentally ill after you married, you can annul your marriage after five years of marriage. Our law office can help you simplify your legal problems.

New York Annulment and Prohibited Marriage Laws

New York prohibits marriages to descendants of the same ancestor and between half- siblings, but same-sex marriage, though never really prohibited in New York, did not become legal until 2011. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled denying same-sex marriages unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges. New York marriage laws prohibit marriage to multiple husbands or multiple wives. There is no statute of limitations on your annulment if your marriage was never valid.

Child Custody and Support

The good news is that, whether or not your marriage was valid, your children are entitled to the support of both parents. Child support and arrearages get complicated when you or your spouse has been married two or more times. Child custody, support, and visitation is usually determined after the annulment of the marriage. The moral of the story is do not get married until you are sure the ink is dry on an order of divorce.

Case Law

In the case of Levenstein v. Levenstein, Mr. Levenstein was convicted of failure to pay child support just before he married his second wife. He remarried before he divorced his second wife. He was still paying child support to his first wife when he married his third wife. Our annulment law firm will strive for the best possible outcome in your case if your spouse was similarly irresponsible.

In the Levenstein case, the judge awarded his third wife half of the child support arrearage paid to his first wife during their marriage. Unfortunately, the same judge reversed his decision on a Motion to Reconsider brought by Mr. Levenstein.

In Antony T. v. Rosemarie B. T., Rosemarie married her second husband Antony a month before her divorce from her first husband became final. Antony filed for an annulment, but Rosemarie filed for divorce. Rosemarie filed for $2,543.31 per month in temporary alimony and for Antony to pay the legal fees for the divorce. The judge granted Antony a summary judgment and declared his marriage null and void. The judge dismissed Rosemarie’s divorce complaint.

Division of Property

Both parties to an annulment are required to divide their property, assets and debt. The property which must be divided is all property acquired by each party while they were together. Case law demonstrates the complex nature of the division of property and debt. Judges intercede in the best interest of children from the current and previous marriages.

The rules for the division of property acquired in an annulled marriage in brooklyn are the same as the division of marital assets in the case of a divorce. Our multilingual law office offers free consultations in one of our three conveniently located New York City law offices. Our annulment law firm has 50+ years of experience and can help you simply your annulment.

Understanding Brooklyn Annulments

Unfortunately, many marriages end in divorce. Some even end through an annulment, which essentially dissolves a marriage as though it never occurred. This is certainly no exception in Brooklyn or New York in general. An annulment is a legal process that allows a couple to end their marriage by having it declared void or invalid through the court.

Some couples or parties within a married couple choose to go through an annulment due to religious reasons or for certain stigma they think a traditional divorce carries. It’s important to understand what comprises an annulment and how to get one if you are in Brooklyn or anywhere else in the New York City area and are considering this course of action.

What are the Grounds for an Annulment in brooklyn?

The Brooklyn area of New York City and the state of New York, in general, recognizes five different grounds for an annulment. While a divorce can be granted due to irreconcilable differences, an annulment is different because one of the grounds must be proven.

The grounds for an annulment include the following:

• One of both of the spouses was younger than 18 at the time the marriage took place
• One or both of the spouses lacked the mental capacity to consent to the marriage
• One spouse or the other is unable to engage in sexual intercourse to consummate the marriage
• One spouse or the other was mentally ill and that illness was incurable for at least five years
• The marriage was consented by one party due to coercion, fraud or duress

If one spouse was younger than the age of 18 or lacked the mental capacity to consent to the marriage, it means there was a lack of consent. Generally speaking, in order for a Brooklyn or any New York City marriage to be considered legal, both parties must be able to consent to it. However, if or both people continue living together after they turned 18, an annulment will not be granted.

Fraud, Force, and Physical Incapacity

If a person was threatened or forced into a marriage, they have a right to have that marriage annulled. In addition, if there is sufficient proof that one spouse or the other was intoxicated during the time the marriage took place, it is also considered grounds for an annulment.

If one of the spouses is impotent or generally unable to consummate the marriage, the marriage can be annulled. Another issue that the court will consider is if there was an agreement between the spouses to have children and that didn’t happen due to impotence or some other issue resulting in the marriage never being consummated.

In addition, if the marriage involves incest, two people who are closely blood-related, whether or not they were aware of the familial relationship, it’s grounds for an annulment. This can include family relationships such as siblings, half-siblings, aunts or uncles and nieces or nephews and cousins.

Annulments Granted Based on Religion

In some cases, a married couple might want to end their marriage through an annulment rather than divorce due to religious reasons. In general, when this happens, it is as though the marriage never existed in the eyes of the Church. With couples who are Catholic, an annulment can be granted if a diocesan tribunal determines that one is acceptable based on circumstances that took place during the marriage. Some grounds include maturity, honesty, emotional stability and appropriate motivation for entering into the marriage.

What are the Advantages of a Brooklyn Annulment?

There are certain advantages to getting an annulment in Brooklyn or anywhere else in New York. An annulment overrides the need for a divorce, which can be drawn out, tedious and highly emotional. An annulment can simply erase the marriage and leave both parties free of having to deal with all the issues that come up during a divorce. There is no division of property. However, if there were children during the marriage, the judge will decide on custody and child support.

What are the Disadvantages of Getting an Annulment?

Of course, there are also certain disadvantages to getting an annulment. One of the biggest is that they can be expensive. Another issue is that at least one spouse is required to prove that one of the grounds for an annulment existed during the marriage. It’s possible for an investigation to be performed, and there may be depositions, discovery and even a trial. Generally, reasons for an annulment can be more difficult to establish, unlike those for divorce.

If you are Brooklyn-based and are looking to annul your marriage, get in contact with an experienced Brooklyn annulment lawyer at your earliest convenience.

Getting the Marriage Dissolved with Help from the brooklyn Annulment Lawyers

Similar to a divorce, the annulment is a legal proceeding that will dissolve the marriage in the eyes of the court. Unlike the divorce proceedings, once the annulment has been approved, it will be as if the marriage had never happened. Getting a divorce might carry a stigma many people do not want to be labeled with, so they simply choose to get the annulment instead. Other people may choose to go the route of the annulment because they will be able to be remarried in a church more easily than if they were divorced.

Consideration by the courts is challenging for this type proceeding, but Brooklyn annulment lawyers will be able to help convince the court your particular case warrants approval.

Misrepresentation of the Marriage

brooklyn annulment lawyers will explain in detail what it means to have been lied to before the marriage or when one party grossly misrepresented themselves. These instances can vary significantly, but they all tend to have one theme, one of the parties was completely unaware of the truth until it was revealed after the marriage was legalized.

Perhaps one spouse lied about the fact that they have children with another person that was only revealed after the fact. There could be instances where one party lied about them wanting children, hiding he fact that they can no longer have children.

If one spouse misrepresented something significant before the marriage, the brooklyn annulment lawyers can help to convince a judge to dissolve the union.

Marriage by Force

The brooklyn annulment lawyers can often get the marriage dissolved if they can prove to the court that one party was forced into the union. These type cases often require a decent amount of evidence, but your attorney has years experience at being able to put together the pieces in these cases.

There could have been threats made to family or friends of one spouse who felt that they needed to go ahead with the marriage in order to protect them. In other cases, maybe the one spouse had information they planned to expose about their spouse if they did not go through with the marriage, your attorney can gather that information for the courts.

Proving that one party entered into the marriage by force is something your annulment lawyer will have little trouble proving to the courts when you provide them all the specifics of your case.

Being of Unsound Mind

brooklyn annulment lawyers specialize in being able to get the marriage dissolved when one or both of the parties were of unsound mind. Typical cases in this instance involve couples being too drunk to make a rational decision, and getting marriage in a 24-hour wedding chapel in Vegas. When the parties wake the next day and realize what happened, they scramble to try and erase the evening from the record books.

Whether too impaired by drugs or alcohol, or not having the mental capacity to understand what was happening, this is certainly an instance where a good annulment lawyer is needed.

Being of unsound mind can also be classified as one partner drugging another and keeping them sedated long enough to go through the marriage. While these instances are difficult to defend, the Brooklyn annulment lawyerscertainly can offer the courts enough evidence to have the annulment considered.

Dealing With a Case of Bigamy

If one partner discovers that their spouse was still married at the time of the wedding, this can certainly be grounds for the annulment. It doesn’t matter if the spouse concealed the other marriage or thought that the divorce was finalized in time, these cases are very easy to prove and your annulment attorney should be able to gather enough court documents to show if the spouse was in fact still married and committed bigamy as a result.

If the partner has been hiding the fact they are married, then your attorney can take steps to get this marriage dissolved in the courts and erased out of the record books.

Bigamy cases should be handled by the brooklyn annulment lawyers so that the one unsuspecting spouse has the chance to get a clean slate and not have to be victimized by this error for the rest of their lives.

The brooklyn annulment lawyers understand that every marriage has unique circumstances for being dissolved. If your particular situation falls into the category for annulment, you want to make certain you have a skilled brooklyn attorney at your side that specializes in these type of complicated cases.

Legal Grounds for Annulment Under New York Law

Here are some reasons for an annulment of marriage provided for by law: if one of the spouses was already married at the time of the marriage, if one of the spouses was a minor at the time of the marriage and if one of the spouses suffered from a mental disorder at the time of the marriage.

As soon as the marriage is annulled, there is retroactivity. That is to say, that nullity has consequences not only for the future, but it also erases all the effects of the past. Conversely, divorce puts an end to a marriage only for the future.

Remember, when minor children want to get married, parental authorization is essential.

Additional Grounds and Considerations

Another reason for an annulment of marriage provided for by law includes the absence or the violation of consent. Also, for example, there are sometimes cases of a fraudulent marriage concerned with a financial advantage or for acquiring a nationality. The concept of putative marriage was therefore created in the event of a judicial annulment of the marriage on serious grounds. Also, view this link for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putative_marriage

Also, it is a civil judge who, if necessary, pronounces the nullity of the marriage and cancels it. Remember, there is usually an absence of compensation in the event of marriage annulment. For example, the right of inheritance between spouses disappears as well as matrimonial agreements. On the other hand, the annulment of the marriage has no direct legal effect on the children: each parent retains the exercise of parental authority.

Differences Between Annulment and Divorce

On the other hand, during divorce proceedings, a spouse can obtain the establishment of alimony in their favor to help a spouse provide for their needs. The judge may determine the award and amount of support.

Also, for a divorce by mutual consent, a spouse no longer needs to prove the fault of the other spouse to obtain a divorce. On the other hand, a divorce will result in a dissolution only for the future of the marriage.

Effects of Marriage Annulment

In principle, a marriage annulled by a court decision must have so-called retroactive effects (on the past) and the marriage is therefore deemed not to have existed, which supposes to consider the “spouses” as cohabitants.

A marriage annulled by a court decision also provides these effects: a loss of inheritance rights, a cancellation of the donations during the marriage, a loss of the marital name and a disappearance of the duty of retroactive assistance with restitution of the sums provided.

The spouse of good faith is the one who was in ignorance, and who acted in accordance with what they knew (eg one of the spouses is bigamous at the wedding). If you are the spouse of good faith you should act as soon as possible by contacting a lawyer while gathering as much evidence as possible showing your spouse’s real intentions: threats, non-participation in marriage expenses, frequent and/or prolonged absences from the marital home, etc.