QUESTION

I previously ask a question about my current husband being married in 1986 and no documents to support a divorce

Asked on Nov 28th, 2011 on Divorce - Georgia
More details to this question:
or an annulment had ever taken place.He swaers up and down he went into the judges chambers to sign em. I don''t know what to do or what my rights are as his wife now. He swears up and down that the papers were signed but obviously the courthouse didn''t file em.
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1 ANSWER

Judges are extraordinarily busy.  As such, it is curious, to say the least, that your husband would be requested to go to the Judge's chambers to sign divorce papers.  You need to protect yourself.  First, you need to go to the Superior Court Clerk of the county in which his divorce was allegedly filed.  (Documents filed with the Clerk are public record, and you can obtain a copy without your husband's assistance.)  Check to see if there was even a Complaint (or Petition) for Divorce that was filed.  If no Complaint/Petition was filed, and/or there was no Order entered, your husband is still married and has committed bigamy.  Per Georgia law (OCGA §19-3-2), to be able to enter a valid marriage, a person must have no living spouse of a previous unresolved marriage.  Further, the dissolution of a previous marriage in divorce proceedings must be affirmatively established and will not be presumed.  Knowingly entering into a bigamous marriage is a legal ground for divorce, and any marriage that violates this bigamy provision is void in Georgia (OCGA §19-3-5).   In addition to the possibility of your marriage being void under Georgia law, your husband may have to face a criminal charge of bigamy.  According to the criminal code (OCGA §16-6-20), "[a] person commits the offense of bigamy when he, being married and knowing that his lawful spouse is living, marries another person or carries on a bigamous cohabitation with another person."  If he is convicted of the offense of bigamy, the law says he "shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years."     
Answered on Nov 28th, 2011 at 9:43 AM

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