Torres, Angela Jane T.
Sat 8-11
S Legal Separation
Nature A legal separation does not end a marriage or domestic
partnership. You cant marry or enter into a partnership with
someone else if you are legally separated ( and not divorced). A
legal separation is for couples that do not want to get divorced
but want to live apart and decide on money, property, and
parenting issues.
Grounds A petition for legal separation may be file on any of the following
grounds:
Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed
against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the
petitioner;
Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to
change religious or political affiliation;
Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a
common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in
prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement;
Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of
more than six years, even if pardoned;
Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous
marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;
Sexual infidelity or perversion;
Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable
cause for more than one year.
Effects Spouses who are only legally separated cannot remarry without
getting a formal divorce. This has the potential benefit of making
it fairly easy for the couple to reconcile and continue their life
together as married souses, if they desire without having to go
through the marriage process again.
The spouse shall be entitled to live separately from each other,
but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;
The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the
innocent spouse.
Annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure for declaiming a marriage null and
void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an
annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning
almost as if it had never taken place. In legal terminology, an
annulment makes a void marriage or a voidable marriage null.
The grounds for annulment of marriage are:
Absence of parental consent. A marriage was solemnized and one or
the other party was 18 years of age or over but below 21 and consent
was not given by the parents, guardian or person having substitute
parental authority.
Mental Illness. One or either party was of unsound mind at the
moment of the marriage. But if the parties freely cohabited with
each other after he/she came to reason the law prohibits the filing of
the petition.
Fraud. That the consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless
such party once having knowledge of the fraud freely cohabited with
the other as husband and wife.
That the consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation
or undue influence.
One or the other party was physically incapable of consuming the
marriage, and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable.
Either party was at the time of marriage afflicted with a sexually-
transmitted-disease found to be serious and seems to be incurable.
This may also constitute fraud.
Both parents are legally obligated to provide for their children. For a
parent who doesnt have physical custody of the children, the court
will determine a schedule of when that parent will spend time with
them. If a couple has accumulated property during their time
together, they may want the annulment judge to decide how to
divide it between them. Some states allow their judges to do that,
others dont. Once marriage is annulled, one lose inheritance rights
he/she may have had as a spouse.
Divorce
A divorce ( also called dissolution of marriage or dissolution of
domestic partnership ) ends your marriage or domestic
partnership. After you get divorced, you will be single, and you can
marry or become a domestic partner again. If you get divorced,
you can ask the judge for orders like child support, spousal
support, custody and visitation, domestic violence, restraining
orders, division of property, and other orders.
Cruel and inhuman treatment constitute as grounds for divorce. In
proper defense, acceptable differences enable the defendant to
have the ability to arrange grounds for divorce. Some examples for
grounds for divorce are;
Sexual harassment
Adultery
Alcoholism
Disability
Desertion
Imprisonment
Domestic violence ( including physical, sexual, or mental abuse of
the other spouse and/or the child/children of the couple ).
Children of divorced parents rated the support they received from
home much lower than the children of intact homes. There is a
decline in the closeness of the parent-child relationship mediated
much if the association between parental divorce, marital discord,
and offsprings psychological well-being in adulthood. Children of
divorced mothers have poorer and less stimulating home
environments. Furthermore, divorced mothers, despite their best
intentions, are less able than married mothers to give emotional
support to their children.