Legal Question in Family Law in California

I don't know who told you your marriage was "void," but there is no such thing as a marriage that just "doesn't count." If you took out a license, got married, filed the license, you were married. The only question then is whether it qualifies for an annulment or if you have to get a divorce. Even bigamous or incestuous marriages have to be annulled. If you get married again without clearing up the 2003 marriage you will be committing bigamy again, making your third marriage void.

You can't get married again until your first marriage is terminated by an actual judgment of divorce, signed by the judge, and the second marriage is terminated by an annulment, in a judgment signed by the judge.

If I am reading your inquiry right, you did finally clear up your first marriage, (2003), as you state that you are now divorced from your first husband. It is the second marriage that needs to be cleaned up. You indicate that during the custody battle of the second marriage, the issue of your unresolved first marriage came up, but it would appear that neither of you ever officially terminated that marriage either by annulment or divorce. If you have not done so, you must do so before you marry husband number 3.

BARRY BESSER

www.besserlaw.com