A Maryland annulment is a court order declaring that a marriage was never legally valid in the first place, available only on narrow grounds such as bigamy, a prohibited family relationship, underage marriage without judicial approval, mental incapacity, fraud, or duress. It is not a faster or easier divorce. You have to prove the marriage was defective from the day of the ceremony, and the standard of proof is higher than in an ordinary civil case.
Grounds That Qualify
Maryland recognizes a limited set of defects that can support an annulment. The petitioner carries the burden of proving that one of them applies.
Bigamy
If either spouse was already legally married to someone else at the time of the ceremony, the later marriage is void. Courts typically want the prior marriage certificate and proof that the earlier marriage was never ended by divorce or death.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Criminal Law 10-502 – Bigamy
Prohibited Family Relationships
Maryland law voids marriages between people who are too closely related. A person cannot marry a grandparent, parent, child, sibling, or grandchild, and cannot marry a parent’s sibling, a sibling’s child, a stepparent, or various in-law relations such as a spouse’s parent or a child’s spouse. Any Maryland marriage that violates these rules is void from the start.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Family Law 2-202 – Marriages Within Certain Degrees of Relationship Void Penalties
Underage Marriage
Since 2022, the minimum age to marry in Maryland is 17, and a 17-year-old can only marry after a judge evaluates the minor’s maturity, self-sufficiency, best interest, and any coercion, with an attorney appointed to represent the minor. A marriage involving someone under 18 who did not go through that judicial authorization is voidable at the minor’s request (or that of a parent or guardian). If the underage spouse turns 18 and keeps living with the other spouse, a court may treat the marriage as ratified and refuse to annul it.
Mental Incapacity
A marriage is voidable if one spouse could not meaningfully consent at the time of the ceremony because of severe mental illness, cognitive impairment, or intoxication serious enough to prevent understanding. Courts want medical records, psychiatric evaluations, or expert testimony. A spouse’s own description of how the other seemed on the wedding day is rarely enough on its own.
Fraud or Duress
Fraud has to go to something central to the marriage itself, such as misrepresenting the ability to have children, hiding a serious criminal history, or concealing one’s actual identity. Lying about income or career generally does not qualify. The test is whether the deceived spouse would have gone through with the ceremony had they known the truth.
Duress means one spouse was forced into the marriage by threats or extreme pressure that overcame free will. For both fraud and duress, judges expect concrete corroboration: documented misrepresentations, written communications, or witness testimony. The petitioner’s word alone rarely carries the day.
Void or Voidable, and Why It Matters
Maryland splits defective marriages into two categories, and the category controls who can challenge the marriage and how vulnerable the annulment is to being denied.
A void marriage is treated as though it never happened. Bigamy and prohibited family relationships fall here. Either spouse can challenge a void marriage, and a third party can too. Technically no court order is required to invalidate it, but getting a formal decree is still the sensible move for clearing records and untangling any financial or custody issues.
A voidable marriage is valid unless and until one of the spouses successfully challenges it in court. Fraud, duress, mental incapacity, and underage marriage without judicial approval all sit in this category. Only a spouse can bring the challenge. And if the couple keeps living together after the underlying problem is gone, the court can refuse to grant the annulment on the theory that the marriage has been ratified. That risk is the single most common reason otherwise strong cases fail.
When You Have to File
Maryland does not set a fixed statutory deadline for annulment. The rule is that you have to file within a “reasonable time” after you discover the grounds, and courts have real discretion about what that means.
The harder deadline is the ratification rule for voidable marriages. If you married under duress and stayed voluntarily for years after the threats ended, a court will likely treat the marriage as valid. The same logic applies to fraud once you know the truth, and to mental incapacity once the incapacitated spouse regains the ability to consent. Continued cohabitation after the defect is gone can close the door on annulment entirely.
Filing in Circuit Court
An annulment starts with a Complaint for Annulment filed in a Maryland circuit court. You can file in the county where you live or in the county where the ceremony took place.3The Maryland People’s Law Library. Annulment The complaint has to name the specific ground and lay out the facts that support it.
The filing fee for a new civil action in Maryland circuit court is $165.4Maryland Courts. Summary of Charges, Costs and Fees of the Clerks of the Circuit Court If you cannot afford it, you can submit a Request for Waiver of Costs along with your complaint; no fee is due at the time of filing the waiver request. A judge reviews your finances and decides. If the waiver is denied, you have 10 days to pay the fee or the court treats the case as withdrawn.5Maryland Courts. Filing Fee Waivers
After filing, you have to serve the other spouse with the complaint. Service can go through a sheriff, a private process server, or certified mail with return receipt. If the other spouse cannot be located despite reasonable efforts, you can ask the court for permission to use alternative service, such as publication in a newspaper.
Once served, the other spouse has 30 days to file an answer if served in Maryland, 60 days if served out of state, and 90 days if served outside the country.6Maryland Courts. Frequently Asked Questions – Civil Family They can admit or deny, or file a counterclaim. If they miss the deadline, you can ask for a default judgment so the case moves forward without them.
What Happens at the Hearing
After the response window closes, the case goes before a circuit court judge. The petitioner must present proof that is “clear and satisfactory,” a higher bar than the usual civil standard of tipping the scales. The judge needs to be genuinely convinced.
Both sides can testify, call witnesses, and submit documents. In fraud and duress cases especially, corroboration matters: medical records, financial documents, messages showing deception, or testimony from people who saw the coercion. The respondent can fight the annulment by contesting the facts, offering their own evidence, or arguing that the petitioner ratified the marriage by continuing to live with them after learning the truth or after the pressure ended.
What an Annulment Actually Does
A decree of annulment declares the marriage never legally existed. Both parties return to the legal status they held before the ceremony. Neither is a “former spouse” for purposes like inheritance rights, Social Security survivor benefits, or tax filing status.
Because there was no valid marriage, Maryland’s equitable-distribution rules for dividing marital property do not apply. Property is sorted out under general contract and property principles: each person typically keeps what they brought in, and jointly held property is divided based on financial contributions. A spouse who suffered financial harm from the invalid marriage can pursue claims like unjust enrichment.
Children born during the marriage are not affected. Maryland law expressly provides that children are not made illegitimate by an annulment.3The Maryland People’s Law Library. Annulment The court still sets custody, visitation, and child support under the best-interest-of-the-child standard, the same as in a divorce.
Alimony is available. Contrary to a common assumption, Maryland courts can award alimony as part of an annulment decree.3The Maryland People’s Law Library. Annulment Whether a court actually awards it depends on the same kinds of factors that drive alimony in divorce: the length of the relationship, each party’s finances, and whether one spouse made significant sacrifices in reliance on the marriage.
Religious Annulment Is Not a Legal Annulment
A religious annulment, such as one from the Catholic Church, has no legal effect in Maryland. It does not change your marital status, does not affect property rights, and does not resolve custody or support. Only a civil annulment from a Maryland circuit court changes your legal status. If you have a religious annulment but no civil annulment or divorce, you are still legally married, and you cannot remarry without the court order.