Declaration of Invalidity of Marriage / Annulment

In certain circumstances, it is possible in Illinois to obtain a court judgment declaring a marriage to be invalid. This is what used to be known as an annulment.

The grounds for declaring a marriage to be invalid are as follows:

• A party lacked capacity to consent to the marriage at the time the marriage was solemnized, due to either mental incapacity or the influence of alcohol, drugs or other incapacitating substances;
• A party was induced to enter into a marriage by force, duress, or fraud;
• A party lacks the ability to consummate the marriage by sexual intercourse, and at the time the marriage was solemnized, the other party did not know of the incapacity;
• A party was aged 16 or 17 years and did not have the consent of his or her parents, guardian or judicial approval;
• The marriage is prohibited by law.

You can get a court judgment declaring a marriage to be invalid by using the same procedure used to obtain a divorce. However, you must file a petition to declare a marriage invalid within specific times.
Examples:

• For the grounds of lack of capacity, force, duress or fraud, you must file the petition within 90 days of the day you find out that such a circumstance exists.
• For the ground of inability to physically consummate the marriage, you must file within one year after you learn of the inability.

Article Source: http://freelegalinformation.info

Provided by Illinois Legal Aid