Legal Question in Family Law in Nevada

Re: Bigamy & Custody

This is a great question, but not related in anyway to the custudy of your children.

1) The only question of importance as it relates to the validity of your marriage is to property and debt. If you received a share of property from your ex based on the NM marriage, or say spousal support- all of your property rights would technically void because you were never legally married.

2) You are asking the wrong question. Finding out that you husband was previously married will act to nullify a marriage- not a divorce. It doesn't matter if the minister was fake, if the marriage was properly recorded in NM or was otherwise valid under NM law. Your bigger problem would be if he was still legally married to another woman at the time he married you- at which point it doesn't matter if the minister was fake or real because your marriage was "void Ab initicio" or "from the start" This means it was never valid so you don't have to do anything. People will file an an annullment to have a paper trail for other purposes. How this never came out during your divorce is unknown. But it would make no sense to set aside a decree of divorce- which would act to undue the divorce of a marriage which didn't exist.

You file an action in Family court to strike everything because there was no proper marraige to get divorced from. if you have alot of money with doing better to do with it, you can. Yes you can also sue him for fraud and a few other things, but if he doesn't have any assets to collect from, it may not be worth it.

Now the bad news- There is no law that says only a married man gets to have contact with his children. If he is the biological father he will have visitation and joint legal custudy (Absent drug, alcohol or mental issues). Assuming your marriage was not valid- th remedy would be a petition to Establish paternity/Child support and visitation. A single unmarried mother is presumed to the primary physical custodian of her children, however depending on the children's ages and Dad's contact with them- the court might give him the same contact as before all this came to light

Re: Bigamy & Custody

I would also say that your Ex does not have proper rights to your children. If the annulment is granted, which it will happen, his paternity order is also voided and he will have to establish paternity. Until he does that, he would have no rights.

Paternity could be established if you lived together during conception, if you put him on the birth certificate, that would also help him establish paternity.

You don't need to go to Civil Court because you were never properly married so the annulment is for sure. The Family Court Judge though will look at the best interests of your children. If your custody arrangement has been working well, the judge may not change it and just treat you two if you were living together and never married.

In Las Vegas, there are many people who never get married to their boyfriend or girlfriend and the judge makes custody orders.