ANNULMENT – a proceeding for dissolving a marriage that is void. Annulment, unlike divorce, invalidates all family ties between the parties as though they never existed. Grounds for annulment include marriages obtained via fraud or duress, bigamous marriages, marriages within prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity, marriages to people of insufficient age, marriages to the mentally incompetent, marriages to people who are sterile, or impotent, or have a venereal disease.