A girlfriend of mine is trying to get an annulment, and she called up to the court house and they said they don't have the papers for an annulment. She is trying to do it by herself and without a lawyer but how does she go about obtaining the papers at little or no cost? And why the hell wouldn't a court house have those papers? Well Thanks for all the help in advance!
****** GOOGLE SEARCH ON "MARYLAND ANNULMENT" FINDS THE FOLLOWING....
In Maryland there are two types of annulment. In the first type the marriage is declared void ab initio, or from its inception, as though it had never existed. You do not legally have to go to court to have the marriage declared void ab initio, although it's a good idea to do so. In the case of an annulment, a marriage must be "totally void" in order for it to be considered annulled.
There are two characteristics of a "totally void" marriage:
the marriage posses some defect rendering it susceptible to collateral attack (some evidence that shows the marriage never happened or should have never happened) even after the death of one or both spouses; and
no direct step or proceeding to annul is necessary (although the latter may be desirable).
One such defect is if your spouse was formally married to someone else and still has not divorced that person. Your marriage to this spouse is considered totally void.
Another defective marriage is one done between "blood" relatives. There is also a provision that a minor of 16 and 17 years of age or younger than 16 could not marry unless the statutory provision of the Family Law code §2#301 is met.
The second type of annulment is called voidable. A voidable marriage can only be annulled by going to court and having it declared void. . Annulment is available in Maryland, and in some cases it can be obtained under the name of a divorce. Along with obtaining an annulment for bigamy and for lack of consensual age, a marriage may be declared void if the parties did not really intend to marry or if they are incapacitated, as in insanity, intoxication, fraud, and duress. Although annulments may be granted, the preference of the court is not to annul, but for the parties to divorce. Also, any marriage that is expressly prohibited by statute is void by annulment.
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The laws (statutes written by the legislature) on divorce in Maryland are located in “The Maryland Annotated Code under the Family Law section of the Code in subsection 7”. References to the law in the information in this Library section will look like the following “Md. Code Ann. Family Law § 7- ###”.
Annulment is a relatively rare special action that establishes that your marriage never existed. If a court finds the facts necessary to grant an annulment it is as if you and your spouse were never married. The factors necessary to prove an annulment are difficult to meet and therefore courts are reluctant to grant an annulment and may grant a divorce instead.
Grounds for an Absolute Divorce, Limited Divorce or an Annulment - There are three principal players involved in your marriage that will also be involved in your divorce: you, your spouse, and the state. You and your spouse cannot simply agree between yourselves to break up and file a paper stating that. Among other legal considerations, you have to give the state an acceptable reason why you should be allowed to break up. The reason is known as the ground for your divorce. Over the years, each state has passed its own legislation that governs acceptable grounds for divorce.
In Maryland, there are different grounds for a divorce, a “legal separation” or limited divorce and an annulment. You may request more than one ground in your filing with the court
