Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Annultment

If you don't qualify for annulment you may need a dissolution (divorce). If you qualify for annulment you will need to draft a Petition For Annulment which needs to be served on the spouse and sets forth the relevant facts and asks for a Judgment of Annulment. You should retain a family lawyer or contact the Oregon State Bar OSBAR.ORG for a referral to a lawyer who does low fee work if you are of modest means. For do-it-yourself, perhaps your County Courthouse can direct you to materials or forms for your purpose or you can go to the County law library.

Here are Oregon statutes (laws) that determine when a person can obtain an annulment:

106.020 Prohibited and void marriages. The following marriages are prohibited; and, if solemnized within this state, are absolutely void:

(1) When either party thereto had a wife or husband living at the time of such marriage.

(2) When the parties thereto are first cousins or any nearer of kin to each other, whether of the whole or half blood, whether by blood or adoption, computing by the rules of the civil law, except that when the parties are first cousins by adoption only, the marriage is not prohibited or void. [Amended by 1989 c.647 �1]

106.030 Voidable marriages. When either party to a marriage is incapable of making such contract or consenting thereto for want of legal age or sufficient understanding, or when the consent of either party is obtained by force or fraud, such marriage shall be void from the time it is so declared by decree of a court having jurisdiction thereof.

107.005 Annulment of void marriage; declaration of validity; effect of declaration. (1) A marriage may be declared void from the beginning for any of the causes specified in ORS 106.020; and, whether so declared or not, shall be deemed and held to be void in any action, suit or proceeding in which it may come into question.

(2) When either husband or wife claims or pretends that the marriage is void or voidable under the provisions of ORS 106.020, it may at the suit of the other be declared valid or that it was void from the beginning or that it is void from the time of the decree.

(3) A marriage once declared valid by the decree of a court having jurisdiction thereof, in a suit for that purpose, cannot afterward be questioned for the same cause directly or otherwise. [1971 c.280 �7]

107.015 Grounds for annulment or dissolution of marriage. The annulment or dissolution of a marriage may be decreed for the following causes:

(1) When either party to the marriage was incapable of making such contract or consenting thereto for want of legal age or sufficient understanding;

(2) When the consent of either party was obtained by force or fraud; provided that in the situations described in subsection (1) or (2) of this section the contract was not afterward ratified. [1971 c.280 �8]