Is Divorce or Annulment necessary?

[dwarren1961]

What is the name of your state?Married 5/7/2004 in Tennessee, resided in Indiana since married, found out 2 months later that my previous marriage had not become final. Immediately refiled and was granted that divorce in 9/04 and have continued living together with my new wife as husband and wife for over a year. If either of us wanted to end this marriage now would divorce or annulment be necessary since we have effectively "ratified" the marriage by continuing to cohabitate as husband and wife. Is the marriage considered "void" without any legal proceedings necessary??? As a first step, if any sort of legal prceeding is necessary to end this marriage I would like to pay an attorney to prepare a letter stating that fact.

[rmet4nzkx]

Do you want to end this marriage, if so, it will require a divorce in Indiana since that is where you now reside. However if you want to make the marriage valid, then get married again.

What are the grounds for divorce in Indiana?

A divorce may be had on an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. Fault grounds include conviction of a felony, impotency existing at the time of the marriage, and incurable insanity for three years.

Annulment

In a divorce, the court declares the marriage contract broken; in an annulment, the court says that there never was a marriage. Annulment is much more difficult to prove -- and is much rarer -- than divorce. Annulment is the process of nullifying of a marriage where the court declares that the marriage never took place. In order to annul a marriage, the person seeking the legal action must have sufficient grounds for annulment. In your case, this would be your spouse because an action for annulment is brought by the innocent party, however, if she knew of the bigamy and continues to live with you, a divorce may be needed.

What follows is a list of general requirements or grounds for annulment which must be presented to the courts to terminate a marriage in this way.

Grounds for annulment typically involve one party's lack of capacity for marriage or some type of fraud. One grounds for annulment is if one party had another living husband or wife at the time of marriage. This is valid even if the spouse knew about the other spouse prior to marriage. In some cases a person may have been legally denied the right to remarry, in which case this is sufficient grounds for annulment. This is still more difficult to prove than a divorce.

The grounds for annulment must be presented to the court on behalf of the innocent party. In order to be considered, the grounds for annulment must be presented to the courts within a specified time period. This time period is set forth in the statutes created by each state. This time restraint also depends on the specific grounds for annulment. In some cases this time period may begin at the time of discovering the factor which gives valid grounds for annulment. So if your spouse doesn't want a divorce or annulment and will not file for annulment, then you could get married and then you could file for divorce.