Under Minnesota law, when two married individuals plan to separate, the most common route is to get a divorce. Often, people want to get an annulment for religious reasons. However, a religious annulment and a legal annulment are two different things. Individuals who go through the divorce process in the court system may be able to still get a religious annulment within their church.
Legal Annulments
Legal annulments are allowed under very limited circumstances. The idea behind a legal annulment is that there was some reason the parties were unable to actually obtain a legal marriage; these reasons include an individual being under the legal age for marriage, a mental incapacity at the time of marriage, the influence of drugs or alcohol, if consent was obtained by force or fraud, or if the marriage was not able to be consummated and both parties were not aware of that before the marriage took place. Along with only being available in limited circumstances, there are strict time frames in which an annulment action must be filed with the court.
The legal annulment process follows the same general procedure of a divorce in the court system. Property still must be allocated between the parties. However, the end result of an annulment is the court saying that the marriage basically never happened. If you have questions about whether an annulment is right for you, it is best to talk to a Minnesota divorce attorney.
