Recently a woman told me she and her husband had been married for about a week and it just wasn't working out. She wanted to know if she could get the marriage annulled instead of going through a divorce.

Actually, this question comes up more than you might think. People often get married and realize very soon afterward that it all just happened too fast. Most times, however, the answer is no, a marriage cannot be annulled based on the fact that is has just taken place.

To clarify, an annulment decree is a ruling that there was never a valid marriage. A divorce, on the other hand, is the dissolution of a valid marriage. There are no Alabama laws that officially set forth grounds for annulment or specify the jurisdiction of the court to enter one. The law of annulment is based on the “common law” which, generally, is law made by previous court rulings.

Alabama Courts follow a general rule that makes a distinction between “void and voidable marriages,” which is subtle but very important in interpreting the law. Any marriage can be “voidable,” meaning there is a legal procedure to dissolve it; however, a “void” marriage is one that was never legal and, therefore, invalid. Void marriages can be annulled. Voidable marriages must be divorced.

For example, the following circumstances have been considered as grounds for annulet in previous cases: 1) One of the parties in the marriage had a living spouse from whom they had never been legally divorced; 2) One of the parties was under the age of legal consent; 3) One of the parties was of unsound mind at the time of the ceremony; 4) One of the parties was forced into the marriage (a “shotgun wedding”); 5) One party was under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the extent that it prevented him or her from understanding what he or she was doing (a “Hangover”-type wedding); 6) At the time of the marriage, the bride was pregnant by a man other than the groom and this fact was not disclosed to the groom; 7) The parties are too closely related to legally marry (anything closer than first cousins in Alabama); 8) One of the parties had an undisclosed deadly or harmful disease at the time of the marriage; or 9) One of the parties knew they were incapable of having children and did not disclose the information to the other party beforehand.

So, if you find yourself wishing that you had said “I don't” instead of “I do” the day after your marriage, you're going to have to get a divorce unless one of the above factors applies.