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An action to annul a marriage may be brought where:

• one or both of the parties have not attained the age of legal consent
• one of the parties is a mentally retarded person or mentally ill person
• one of the parties was physically incapable of entering into the marriage state
• the consent of one of the parties was obtained by force, duress or fraud
• one of the parties has been incurably mentally ill for a period of five years or more.

An annulment differs from a divorce, and hence is often sought instead of a divorce, because an annulment essentially declares that the marriage never really existed. Practically speaking however, both a divorce and an annulment dissolve the marriage as a matter of public record and provide for support, maintenance, equitable distribution of marital property, custody, counsel fees etc.

An action for an annulment also differs from a divorce in the degree of proof required to obtain a judgment of dissolution. In any action, whether or not contested, brought to annul a marriage, the declaration or confession of either party to the marriage is not alone sufficient as proof, but other satisfactory evidence of the facts must be produced. Simply put, an annulment often requires more proof than a divorce.