Do annulments always require contacting both parties?

[DarkLight]

Thankfully this is a purely hypothetical situation for me. I was involved for a while with an abusive man who pressured me to marry him. The whole situation…I was young, I didn’t know what I was doing. If we had gotten married it would be a pretty clear case for an annulment.

I was wondering though…after separating from him, there was a lot of ongoing harassment. I basically made sure as soon as I could that he had no way of finding out where I was or getting into contact with me. I could see something like an annulment being very dangerous in this case if it required contacting an abuser.

 

[1ke]

A). Yes the respondent is given the opportunity to participate in the nullity process, but it can move forward if the respondent refuses, gives no response, or cannot be located.

B). This isn’t the tribunal’s first rodeo. There are procedures in place for such situations. Moreover, the respondent never receives any contact information nor do they interact directlly with the petitioner even in typical cases.

 

[chevalier]

Thankfully this is a purely hypothetical situation for me. I was involved for a while with an abusive man who pressured me to marry him. The whole situation…I was young, I didn’t know what I was doing. If we had gotten married it would be a pretty clear case for an annulment.

I was wondering though…after separating from him, there was a lot of ongoing harassment. I basically made sure as soon as I could that he had no way of finding out where I was or getting into contact with me. I could see something like an annulment being very dangerous in this case if it required contacting an abuser.

Well, please understand how important it is to give everybody the right do defend himself against accusations, charges and claims. It’s like in paradise, God surely know everything Adam and Eve did or thought but He still summoned them to defend themselves and heard them out. Justice requires contacting the other party. If the courts took our word on things one day, they could take the word of someone else against us the next. This protects all of us, the good and the bad, just so that nobody gets wronged. Now it’s difficult for you when the other party is an abuser or someone who could get violent. But like 1ke says, this isn’t the first time the tribunal is doing this! You could ask the tribunal to protect your home address and make sure the other party doesn’t get any sensitive data, just to be sure. And you can explain that you don’t want ever to meet him.

But here’s some good news: you don’t actually get to meet the other party in a marriage nullity case. Ecclesiastic courts are the most professional courts on the globe and canon law is the most professional legal system that exists. They know how to handle the situation and protect you. And they probably won’t hesitate to take steps to protect you. If the defendant proved unable to participate in the case without endangering you, they would probably cut him out of the case and proceed without the information they could get from him. It’s also possible that the man will just simply ignore the correspondence from the court.

 

[joanofarc2008]

Went through a situation that was very similiar. The tribunals are very good about protecting information.