Separation/Annulments
In Illinois, a legal separation is sometimes used when spouses wish to remain married, at least technically, but they also wish to financially and residentially be separated. Examples may be when the spouses wish to divide their assets and share their earnings, but for religious reasons a divorce is not permitted, or if a disabled spouse needs to remain married to maintain needed health insurance, or one spouse is being sued and puts at risk the assets of the other spouse etc. An annulment, which is really a religious term, is called a Declaration of Invalidity of Marriage in Illinois. When a spouse discovers a fact about the other spouse, which if known prior to marrying would have caused the marriage not to occur, a spouse may invalidate the marriage if that spouse files for invalidity within 90 days of discovery.