An annulment is a court decree stating that a marriage was legally invalid from the beginning rather than simply ending it through divorce. In Arizona, annulment is not a faster or simpler version of divorce. It requires a specific legal basis showing the marriage was void or voidable under Arizona law.

Void marriages are those that were never legally valid such as bigamous marriages. Voidable marriages have a defect that can be challenged such as those entered under duress, fraud, or incapacity.

An annulment means that the parties are put back into the financial posture they were in prior to the marriage. If there is a lot of financial untangling to do, the court may still need to address property, debts, support, and child-related issues. The marriage being declared invalid does not erase the financial and parenting history that followed from it.