QUESTION
My "husband" was still married when we got married. He was granted an absolute divorce but the papers weren''t signed. Do we need an annulment?
Asked on Sep 14th, 2011 on Divorce - Maryland
More details to this question:
His divorce was granted by the judge, and we thought it was finalized and we went and got married. He then found out that he is still married because the divorce decree hasn''t been signed yet. His ex is trying to cause a problem saying he is married to two people at the same time. The clerks office told me that technically our marriage is not valid because he was still married, so we just have to have another ceremony after the papers are signed. So I wanted to know if we need to get an annulment to make sure no action can be taken against him. Or since the marriage was not technically valid, do we need to do anything?
1 ANSWER
In your situation, you have a void marriage. Bigamy is a marriage in which one of the parties is already legally married. This is what has transpired in your situation. In order to clarify your situation, after the divorce judgment is signed for his prior marriage, then you should obtain an annulment of your marriage to him and then get remarried to legalize your current situation.
You should contact a family lawyer in your area familiar with annulments for more details.
-Alfred Polizzotto, III
Answered on Sep 15th, 2011 at 4:42 PM