Divorce or Annulment
Should I file for a divorce or can I file for an annulment? What are the requirements to file for an annulment?
In Tennessee, the core difference is that a divorce ends a legally valid marriage, while an annulment legally erases a marriage by declaring that a valid union never existed from the very beginning.
While anyone can file for a divorce if they meet residency rules, Tennessee courts grant annulments only under very strict, specific circumstances that existed at the time of the wedding.
Annulment is a legal declaration that a marriage was invalid or void from its inception, as though the union never legally existed. The court issues a decree stating that the marriage was defective at its foundation, and therefore never created a valid marital bond. This fundamentally different approach contrasts sharply with divorce, which acknowledges that a valid marriage existed and legally terminates it. In a divorce, the law recognizes the marriage was legitimate but chooses to end it based on current circumstances or mutual agreement.
Key Differences Between Annulment and Divorce
Feature | Divorce | Annulment |
Legal Status | Acknowledges the marriage was valid but is now over. | Treats the marriage as if it never legally occurred. |
Requirements | Based on marital breakdown or misconduct after the wedding. | Requires proof of a structural defect present at the exact time of marriage. |
Alimony | The court can award spousal support. | Generally, no alimony is awarded. |
Property Division | Marital assets and debts are divided by the court. | Parties are usually restored to their individual premarital financial states. |
Children | Does not affect the legitimacy of children; custody and support apply. | Children remain legitimate; custody and support are still ordered by the court. |
Grounds for Annulment in Tennessee
You cannot get an annulment in Tennessee simply because the marriage was short. You must prove one of the following specific grounds existed when you tied the knot:
Bigamy: One spouse was already legally married to someone else.
Incest: The spouses are closer blood relatives than first cousins.
Underage: One or both spouses were under the legal age to marry without proper consent.
Fraud: One party intentionally hid a major truth, such as a pregnancy by another person or a known inability to have children.
Duress: One partner was forced or coerced into the marriage under threats or severe pressure.
Mental Incapacity: A spouse was under the influence of drugs/alcohol or was mentally unstable and unable to understand the marriage agreement.
Impotence: A physical inability to consummate the marriage that was unknown to the other partner before the ceremony.
Denial of Marital Rights: A complete refusal to live together or consummate the union.
https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-36/chapter-4/section-36-4-101/
(a) The following are causes of divorce from the bonds of matrimony:
(1) Either party, at the time of the contract, was and still is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation;
(2) Either party has knowingly entered into a second marriage, in violation of a previous marriage, still subsisting;
(3) Either party has committed adultery;
(4) Willful or malicious desertion or absence of either party, without a reasonable cause, for one (1) whole year;
(5) Being convicted of any crime that, by the laws of the state, renders the party infamous;
(6) Being convicted of a crime that, by the laws of the state, is declared to be a felony, and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary;
(7) Either party has attempted the life of the other, by poison or any other means showing malice;
(8) Refusal, on the part of a spouse, to remove with that person's spouse to this state, without a reasonable cause, and being willfully absent from the spouse residing in Tennessee for two (2) years;
(9) The woman was pregnant at the time of the marriage, by another person, without the knowledge of the husband;
(10) Habitual drunkenness or abuse of narcotic drugs of either party, when the spouse has contracted either such habit after marriage;
(11) The husband or wife is guilty of such cruel and inhuman treatment or conduct towards the spouse as renders cohabitation unsafe and improper, which may also be referred to in pleadings as inappropriate marital conduct;
(12) The husband or wife has offered such indignities to the spouse's person as to render the spouse's position intolerable, and thereby forced the spouse to withdraw;
(13) The husband or wife has abandoned the spouse or turned the spouse out of doors for no just cause, and has refused or neglected to provide for the spouse while having the ability to so provide;
(14) Irreconcilable differences between the parties; and
(15) For a continuous period of two (2) or more years that commenced prior to or after April 18, 1985, both parties have lived in separate residences, have not cohabited as man and wife during such period, and there are no minor children of the parties.
(b) A complaint or petition for divorce on any ground for divorce listed in this section must have been on file for sixty (60) days before being heard if the parties have no unmarried child under eighteen (18) years of age, and must have been on file at least ninety (90) days before being heard if the parties have an unmarried child under eighteen (18) years of age. The sixty-day or ninety-day period shall commence on the date the complaint or petition is filed.