Annulment Progress - and some questions

[IanB]

As some of you may remember, my gf is going through the process of annulment. This now seems to be progressing so I would like to ask some questions.

So far she has had "an interview" at the court and yesterday she had a psychological evaluation.

The interview basically seemed to be to confirm her details and the history of the case. I think she had to pay abut 3,000 pesos for this.

The evaluation was pretty tough. She had to do some really nonsensical and stupid things such as write her entire life history, draw various pictures, and answer lots and lots of questions. It seems that this probably cost a lot,but the main cost came from our payment to our lawyer, but she still had to pay 2,000 pesos for "miscellaneous".

So here are a few questions :

1. What is the point of the psychological evaluation? My understanding is that they will need to demonstrate that her husband was "not of sound mind" when they got married, so why the detail for her?
2. They have given her three or four copies of a letter she is to give to people she knows to provide evidence. Is this normal? They also wrote to her husband to let him know she had been evaluated.
3. They have told her it is important that she does not currently have a relationship with a man - i.e. man. If she does it must be kept completely secret. She is to say that "an aunt" is supporting her, not me. Sounds reasonable, but is this true / normal?
4. How much should this influence us? I was planning to go to see her in the Phils in april. She now thinks ity should be Thailand again.
5. How far into the process do you think we have got? We were told it would take a year, but it took a few months for our lawyer to track down her husband and get him to accept a letter.

Her situation has a positive angle for annulment: her husband left her 7 years ago after only a month, and has since proceeded to have children with another woman. Her lawyer has said this should maximise her chances of success and the lawyer seems quite confident. However I know that annulment is not an easy thing to get. Anyone got any views on this?

Thanks for reading this far. I will keep this thread updated.

By the way, she is in Angeles City. Her lawyer is a local lady who is highly recommended by clients my wife has met. The cost is not as high as some people have paid. To be honest I cannot remember how much but the whole thing is forecast to cost around 70,000 pesos I think. If anyone needs to know I will check.

Good luck to anyone else who is going through this evil process - and I use that word in its most literal sense.

Ian

[RickyR]

We've just finished the same process after a year, in similar circumstances. The delays caused by tracking down the husband and then the court will investigate why he doesn't respond to the summons and why he doesnt attend the pre-trial and the pre-trial being deferred to another day to give him a chance etc. So it does take a long time, we started in January and have just completed.

We kept things very secret, and still are despite it being completed, as adultery is taken seriously in the Philippines (Slight different situation, but this makes the point clear http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...ice-help-us.do )

If you do some searching you'll find some good posts on here describing the annullment process, and how it works and what the grounds are for an annullment and all of the seperate stages.

ADULTERY

Adultery is committed by any married woman who shall have sexual intercourse with a man not her husband and by a man who has carnal knowledge of her, knowing her to be married, even if the marriage be subsequently declared void (Article 333, Revised Penal Code)

ADULTERY

[laurel]

Good luck to anyone else who is going through this evil process - and I use that word in its most literal sense.

Good luck Ian, couldnt agree more with that quoted statement am in the same situation almost finished but the probs come unexpectedly , im hoping that all will be smooth for you, good luck again