Question:
My wife and I are heading toward divorce. She recently started receiving treatment for an anxiety disorder after years of refusing as I pleaded with her to seek help.
Does her mental condition, being classified as an illness by a psychiatrist, warrant any consideration to seek an annulment based on the fact that it was undiagnosed during our marriage, pre-separation?
Legally, will it matter that she willingly neglected her well-being and the well-being of our family?
Answer:
While I am not licensed to practice in your state, I can give some general guidance on this issue.
Assuming that your state’s annulment laws are similar to that of New Jersey, where I practice, this would likely not be a sufficient basis for an annulment. In this situation in New Jersey, she would either have had to already be diagnosed and failed to reveal that to you at the time of your marriage or it would have to rise the level where she needed to be committed to a psychiatric ward for a substantial period of time.
Contrary to popular belief, the grounds for annulment, rather than divorce, tend to be extremely limited. Even if an annulment is available to you, however, you will not necessarily avoid litigation over joint expenses, and certainly not over the children.
I recommend that you speak with an experienced divorce attorney in your area who can more thoroughly review all of your options with you and devise the best strategy to accomplish your goals.
To arrange an initial consultation to discuss divorce rights for men with a Cordell & Cordell attorney, including New Jersey divorce lawyer Devan Theiler, contact Cordell & Cordell.
Thank you for the information. When all eftfors of keeping the marriage together fails, divorce is one of the options that couples turn to after finally deciding to end their relationship. Any transactions, including marriage, that we enter takes a toll on our finances but we have to face them and deal with the consequences.