Getting an annulment is not an easy process for couples in South Carolina because the state offers very few legal reasons why this type of marital dissolution would ever be granted, according to Kevin Seibert, a divorce attorney in Charleston, SC, who practices at the Seibert Law Firm. “An annulment is certainly not an easy thing to get,” he says.
Because marriage annulments can be so hard to obtain for couples in South Carolina, it is fairly rare to meet someone in the state who has had a marriage legally annulled by a judge. Despite this, Seibert says that there are some occasions when a couple may have the legal grounds to request an annulment from the court. The most common grounds for an annulment that couples have are:
Bigamy: You cannot have been married to someone else at the time of your marriage. If a previous divorce was never finalized when you went ahead and got married again, then that second marriage would have grounds for an annulment.
Incest: If you married someone who was too close in your bloodline, such as a sibling or a cousin, then that marriage should have never happened in the first place. Because of that, the South Carolina government will allow an annulment on the ground of an incestuous marriage.
Lack of Cohabitation: A lack of cohabitation in South Carolina is considered to be a lack of consent to the contract of marriage. This is actually a much more common reason for a judge to grant an annulment.
Duress: If either party in the marriage was under duress during the time of the wedding—such as in shotgun weddings where one person was forced into the marriage—then a judge may grant an annulment on that basis. The parties would have to prove that this duress was real, which can sometimes be difficult.
Fraud: Fraud can be difficult to prove as well, and because of that, Seibert says that it is not always a surefire way to secure an annulment in these types of situations. Nonetheless, if someone can prove that he or she was the victim of fraud - such as if one partner said he wanted children and later admitted that he was not physically capable of having children - then that would be considered fraud. “It has to be material to the marriage,” Seibert says. Lying about issues such as social standing or wealth is not a fraudulent enough offense to warrant an annulment by a judge, although issues regarding child rearing are generally big enough to warrant an annulment.
Just as they would in a divorce case, two people who are interested in an annulment—and who meet one or more of the above requirements—would need to meet with a lawyer, who would then file a petition for annulment with the court before they could proceed with their case.
The length of time that it can take to be granted an annulment by the court depends on a number of factors, including whether one side of the marriage is disputing the annulment or if both sides are on board with the plans. “If one person wants an annulment and the other one doesn’t, then it could take several months to well over a year,” Seibert says.
As a divorce attorney in Charleston, SC, Seibert regularly works with arguing couples who need someone to step in and mediate the situation. He says that in divorce cases and annulments, the real determining factors that will affect how long the proceedings take have to do with time and cost. “People have to realize this isn’t a product industry, it is a service industry,” he says. “People hire us to argue their cases, to be a mouthpiece for their interests.”
Because of that, he says it can be all but impossible to predict with certainly how long any case will take to play out in the courts, including divorces and annulments. The two attorneys representing the parties in an annulment case may argue back and forth for several months before an agreement is made. “The best case scenario is somewhere along the lines of four months if there was no argument or anything,” he says.
In four months’ time, a divorce attorney in Charleston, SC could file the paperwork for an annulment and walk his clients through the scheduled court dates and hearings. In a worst case scenario, however, getting an annulment finalized could take “a couple of years.” For the best chances of a favorable outcome in an annulment case, Seibert recommends hiring someone with expertise in the field of divorces and family law.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
