Legal Question in Family Law in Mississippi

Re: Legally Married?

A marriage to another by one who is married is void. The problem comes up in estate matters, and to prevent it obtain an annulment of his marriage or a divorce. Since children were born to them I think a divorce would avoid any stigma for them and probably be the most economical approach. Otherwise, your fiance's heirs can raise the defense if the wife in the void marriage or her children make a claim against your finance's estate. Lastly, your fiance definitely needs to make a valid Will and to make sure his insurance designations and property titles are up to date.

Re: Legally Married?

Your fianc� needs to file for divorce. I agree his marriage was void from the beginning, but he cannot decide it was just like a bad dream and never happened. The ninth ground for divorce in Mississippi is �Marriage to some other person at the time of the pretended marriage between the parties�. You can see all the grounds for divorce on my website at the link just below this paragraph.

http://www.mileklaw.com/grounds.html

See also:

� 93-7-1. Annulment of void marriages. Mississippi Code Annotated

All bigamous or incestuous marriages are void, and a declaration of nullity may be obtained at the suit of either party.

Case v. Case, 246 Miss. 750, 150 So. 2d 148

�Marriage to some other person at the time of the pretended marriage between the parties is a ground of divorce from the bonds of matrimony which may be decreed to the injured party.�

Mississippi Divorce, Alimony and Child Custody, Sixth Edition, N. Shelton Hand, Jr.

�1-5 Consequences of invalid marriage at �6

�Initially, all bigamous and incestuous marriages are void, but these void marriages may not be terminated simply by one party choosing to vacate the premises and ignore the marital relationship, however void��

You need to find a local attorney that does mostly family law. If you do not know of one, call my office and I will do my best to refer you to someone in your area. Although this will be a contested matter, it should not be a very expensive case. There is no defense I personally know of to bigamy.