A void marriage is one that was never legally valid from the beginning. It’s treated as though it never existed, regardless of whether a court has declared it invalid and whether both spouses acted in good faith.

A voidable marriage is valid and legally recognized until a court issues an annulment. This means the marriage remains intact unless one of the spouses takes legal action to challenge it.

The legal threshold for a voidable marriage depends on the existence of a fundamental impediment that prevented informed or legal consent to the marital contract. Because the law presumes the validity of a marriage, the burden of proof rests entirely on the petitioner to provide clear and convincing evidence of the defect. If the court finds that the petitioner continued to live as a spouse after the impediment was discovered, the right to an annulment may be forfeited, leaving divorce as the only available path for dissolution.