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I have been practicing Family Law for more than 25 years and just recently completed my first annulment case. The Court annulled the marriage, finding that it had been induced by fraud. When I researched the issue, the vast majority of the cases were from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It got me thinking, in the age of AI, will annulments be making a comeback?
When the Court grants an annulment, it declares a marriage null and void, and each of the parties are restored to the status of an unmarried person. This is unlike a divorce, which ends a legally valid marriage. A marriage is deemed voidable if, among other things, one party was induced to enter the marriage by fraud attributable to the other party.
Fraudulent inducement under Pennsylvania common law occurs when an opposing party makes false representations that induce a party to agree to enter a contract, such as a marital contract. See 23 Pa. C.S. §1102 (marriage is a civil contract) and Appeal of Allen, 99 Pa. 196 (Pa. 1882). In Allen, the husband argued that the marriage was induced by fraud on the part of his wife. The wife had represented and presented herself “as a chaste and virtuous female” and the husband, “relying upon and giving full faith to said representation and pretensions, and not suspecting anything to the contrary,” entered into the marriage. The husband contended that he later learned that his wife had been pregnant prior to the marriage, and he credibly denied having had intercourse with her prior to the marriage. He sought an annulment on the ground of fraud, claiming that the wife’s concealment of her pregnant condition at the time of marriage was a fraud upon him. The trial court granted the annulment, which was affirmed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Id. at 202.
Today’s relationship landscape is different: more couples meet online. According to the How Couples Meet and Stay Together project, in 1995, only about 2% of couples met online. By 2021, more than 50% of married couples met online. More online dating means more long-distance relationships because fewer people are meeting in bars and through friends, which tends to be more localized.
The combination of increased long-distance relationships, online dating, and now throw AI in the mix, is a recipe for fraud. Imagine someone faking their wealth or their profession. They can use AI to alter images and videos to show themselves skiing in the Alps, on a luxury yacht, performing surgery, fighting fires, you name it. A person can pretend to be, at least superficially, exactly what the other person wants them to be.
Suppose you meet someone online who lives in another state. Using AI, they are able to convince you that they are in law school. Because of the distance, you see each other only for romantic weekends rather than in your day-to-day lives. You get engaged. They “graduate.” You marry. They spend their days studying for the bar in the library while you pay the bills. You later discover that the entire story was a lie. They never went to law school, or perhaps they did but dropped out. It sounds far-fetched, but these facts are similar to those of an actual case.
In scenarios where a partner fabricates credentials or life circumstances, such as falsely claiming to be in law school, an annulment, rather than a divorce, may be the appropriate course when the marriage was procured by deceit. As technology expands opportunities for misrepresentation in the age of AI, annulments may indeed see a resurgence. Practitioners and clients should watch for red flags early—and preserve evidence.