Steps in the Process

To begin a new marriage case, please contact your parish priest or a case sponsor who will assist you in completing the petition and gathering the supporting documentation. Since there are a number of distinct types of annulment procedures in Church law, the sponsor will assist in determining the appropriate annulment process. You will be offered a packet with instructions and forms which are to be completed and returned to the sponsor. If you do not have a parish, please phone our office and we will connect you with a case sponsor.

Upon receipt of your petition and supporting documentation, the petition is reviewed by a court official to determine if there is standing. If so, your case will be accepted and the respondent must be cited. As a party to the marriage the respondent has the right to: participate (can but does not have to), read testimony, provide testimony, and provide witnesses. You do not have to have direct contact with the Respondent, we only ask that you provide us with any contact information you may have.

Here, the judges will either confirm, add, or change the grounds based on the information received thus far. Once the grounds are set, appointments will be made for the petitioner, respondent, and the witnesses to be questioned either in person or over video chat. This is the point where cases may be delayed so it is important that you have assurance from witnesses that they will respond in a timely manner and that they are knowledgable about the circumstances. If the evidence is weak, you may be asked to provide additional information or witnesses.

Once all the evidence is gathered, the petitioner and the respondent have the opportunity to review everything that was said by each other and the witnesses. This allows the parties to ensure that all the evidence is present; if not, they may choose to add evidence to complete the testimony. They may also call upon their witnesses to go into more detail about certain points, or even add new witnesses. The option always remains to be satisfied with what was said, or to waive the right to look over it in the first place. Once everything is changed to the parties’ satisfaction, the process continues to the next step. If there are parts of the testimony that the petitioner or respondent would like to be kept from the other party, they may ask the Tribunal to withhold certain portions of the testimony from him or her. If the reasons are sufficient, the judge will withhold those parts.

The judge(s) examine the evidence to determine whether the marriage was valid. (A marriage is presumed valid unless proven otherwise). Once a decision has been made, one of the judges will write the definitive sentence; a notification that the sentence is complete will be mailed to the petitioner and respondent, and they will have the opportunity to review the decision and the argumentation of the court. ​

The decision, whether affirmative or negative, becomes final after 15 "useful days" (business days) if neither party chooses to appeal. If an affirmative decision is given, both parties are then free to marry, unless there are other prior marriages which have not been not been investigated through a canonical process. If a negative decision is rendered, the Church considers the parties to remain bound by the marriage. Either party in the marriage has the right to appeal to a higher court if he or she believes the tribunal’s decision to be unjust.​