Looking for lawyer: annulment/declaration of nullity?

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TomJC70
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My Filipina GF married her Filipino husband in 2000. They have a child together, born in 2001. GF became OFW in 2008, support her hubby and kid for a few years, but then found out he was cheating on her and "left" him: moved the kid to her family and stopped sending him money. He then moved in with another woman, not sure if they have kids, but it is certain he did not marry her.

Now here's the thing: The man she married gave a wrong name and a wrong date of birth when they got married. His legal name is John F. xxx, born 1 Jan 1970. But on the marriage Johnathan F. xxx, born 1 Feb 1971. is recorded. This seems minor, however, there's no legal record anywhere of this Johnathan F. xxx: no marriage record (which is strange) and also no birth certificate. On the other hand John F. xxx is real:  birth certificate and there is a Cenomar(!) for him as well: John F. xxx is NOT married.

To be clear: GF is registered as being married.

From my own research her marriage could be declared null based on "The following marriages shall be void from the beginning: (5) Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other;" (Executive Order No. 209, The Family Code of the Philippines, Art. 35).

In my mind this means: Johnathan F. xxx does not exist, thus GF cannot ever be married to him, hence marriage can easily be declared null.

GF talked to some lawyers, including the above story; they all offer a standard annulment package deal based on psychological incapacity. Huh? Why? (Not to mention: how to evaluate a non existing person?) And none actually discussed the identity issue; The least would be an explanation why his incorrect identity would not hold up in court.
That makes me think they weren't listening...or are clueless or just see $-signs.

Anyone got some insights/thoughts?

And if someone knows a trustworthy lawyer, that would be great!


Thanks,

Tom

Edited by Jollygoodfellow
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Jollygoodfellow
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Welcome to the forum

I removed part of the real names as we cant post that here for privacy reasons. :thumbsup:

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Old55
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What location for attorney? 

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MikeB
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4 hours ago, TomJC70 said:

GF talked to some lawyers, including the above story; they all offer a standard annulment package deal based on psychological incapacity. Huh? Why?

"Psychological incapacity", as pertains to Philippine marital law, does not refer to diagnosed sociopaths, schizophrenics, narcissists, presid, etc. It simply means one spouse or the other does not comply with marital obligations. It's the standard reason cited in all or almost all annulment petitions in the Phils. Duterte was deemed "“psychologically incapacitated to handle essential marital obligations” in the annulment with his first wife. Google it, plenty of articles.

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TomJC70
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18 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Welcome to the forum

I removed part of the real names as we cant post that here for privacy reasons. :thumbsup:

Thanks.
Apologies for the name, although it does surprise me, as John D.(/Jane D.) are commonly used as placeholder names and are not real names. Next time I'll stick to the Xxx :smile:

 

17 hours ago, Old55 said:

What location for attorney? 

Metro Manila would be fine; currently neither of us is in the Philippines and next time we're there, we don't know where we'll go exactly, but we will be passing through Manila.

13 hours ago, MikeB said:

"Psychological incapacity", as pertains to Philippine marital law, does not refer to diagnosed sociopaths, schizophrenics, narcissists, presid, etc. It simply means one spouse or the other does not comply with marital obligations. It's the standard reason cited in all or almost all annulment petitions in the Phils. Duterte was deemed "“psychologically incapacitated to handle essential marital obligations” in the annulment with his first wife. Google it, plenty of articles.

Thanks for the explanation, that does make sense and also clarifies those lawyers responses to some extent.

...which makes me think maybe they're not too bad after all. The two laywers GF talked to in Manila quoted 150k and 180k for the whole annulment procedure and both mentioned it would take about a year and a half. That's quite a  long time and from what I read online it could take even longer...
Their quotes seem not to be out of the ordinary, so that's ok I guess, but GF said she didn't feel good with either. (The 3rd one is far from Manila and not easy to go there for GF, so he's not an option.)

 

 

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Jollygoodfellow
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4 minutes ago, TomJC70 said:

Thanks.
Apologies for the name, although it does surprise me, as John D.(/Jane D.) are commonly used as placeholder names and are not real names. Next time I'll stick to the Xxx :smile:

 

True but you stated it was his legal name so who can be sure. 

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Dave Hounddriver
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21 minutes ago, TomJC70 said:

GF said she didn't feel good with either.

Since she is the main party in this action I suggest that she pick a lawyer she feels good about.  As you can see, the price is about the same all over . .  expensive.  The process is straightforward, just time consuming.  I do not know of anyone who paid the money and go turned down for an annulment, provided the grounds are reasonable (and yours seem to be.)  So best to just get 'er done.

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Old55
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Let your significant other choose. Don't let on she is dating anyone especially not a Rich Kano. Let it be she simply wants an annulment.

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TomJC70
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15 hours ago, Old55 said:

Let your significant other choose. Don't let on she is dating anyone especially not a Rich Kano. Let it be she simply wants an annulment.

Yup, she's very aware of white-nose tax.

I'll tell her to get a lawyer and start the process next time she's in the Philippines, which probably will be Sep '18....that means if all goes as indicated, she'll get her annulment 2nd quarter of 2020.

Thanks.

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Jack Peterson
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14 minutes ago, TomJC70 said:

.that means if all goes as indicated, she'll get her annulment 2nd quarter of 2020.

 I hope all goes well but I have to say, Don't hold your breath on any early result, I have a Friend here that is now in his 4th year of cases, Every hearing has demanded extra this and that and Whatever he tries they (The Court just linger on) as usual the only real winner is the Lawyer :whistling:

 Just saying :571c66d400c8c_1(103):

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