Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Annuling a marriage after a divorce is granted

Annulling a marriage requires making certain statutory assertions. There are several possible assertions you could make that would support an annulment, but I don't know what your situation is. Annulments have to be more carefully plead than a dissolution of marriage, which only requires asserting that the marriage is irretrevably broken, and may have to be supported with substantial evidence if the other party objects or resists. Whether you may seek an annulment after having been granted a dissolution; I've never seen one done directly; I would expect the course would be to move to vacate the decree of dissolution (which the other party could resist if so inclined). There are many family law matters that an person untrained in the law could handle, this is probably not one of them. You will have to be careful of what you assert at each stage of the process so as to not create a problem at the next stage.

Re: Annuling a marriage after a divorce is granted

Annulling a marriage requires making certain statutory assertions. There are several possible assertions you could make that would support an annulment, but I don't know what your situation is. Annulments have to be more carefully plead than a dissolution of marriage, which only requires asserting that the marriage is irretrevably broken, and may have to be supported with substantial evidence if the other party objects or resists. Whether you may seek an annulment after having been granted a dissolution; I've never seen one done directly; I would expect the course would be to move to vacate the decree of dissolution (which the other party could resist if so inclined). There are many family law matters that an person untrained in the law could handle, this is probably not one of them. You will have to be careful of what you assert at each stage of the process so as to not create a problem at the next stage. Partial success could be worse than complete failure, i.e. getting the decree vacated, but failing to get the annulment (and you are legally married again).