It is common to confuse the terms nullity, separation or divorce. Many clients think that they are the same, but in reality they are not. At the legal level, there are notable differences between one or the other.
If we are dealing with a marriage nullity, we are referring to the fact that the marriage never existed, that it was not valid and, therefore, that it was not legal. The causes for which a marriage would be annulled must exist before the marriage is celebrated.
A judge may consider that a marriage was never legal if there are causes such as vices in the consent, i.e., that one of the members has married because he/she was forced to do so. Another example would be withholding relevant information from the other (illness, known infertility).
If we are faced with a separation, the scenario is different. Here the marriage bond continues to exist, but people decide to stop living together. It is as if the marriage were temporarily suspended. The separation can be de facto or de jure. By not breaking the marriage bond, later on people, if they want to remarry another person, for example, they would have to go through the corresponding divorce process. This was normal until 2005, to have to separate first before getting divorced. Now this is no longer the case. We can divorce directly.
If we are facing a divorce, what we want is to break the marriage bond. The divorce can be requested by both spouses, one with the consent of the other or only one spouse. Let us remember that it is no longer necessary to justify why we want to divorce. Now we can carry out the procedure if 3 months have passed since the marriage was celebrated. If you do not know in which case you are, I invite you to contact us and we will discuss your case in detail.
Anna Nicolàs Torán
Lawyer Expert in Family Law
M&CAbogados
