Annulment

Annulment in the Philippines

 Created the bridge for the connection of psychology and law in the country.
 The enactment of Family Code in 1987 pave way for psychologist or those whose expertise
ideally suited to explain human behavior in cases involving annulment.
 Use of psychological incapacity as basis for annulment is the most common method

Grounds of Annulment in the Philippines

 Absence of Parental Consent

 Mental Illness or Psychological Incapacity
 Fraud
 The consent was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence
 One or the other part was physically incapable of consummating the marriage., and
such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable.
 Either party was at the time of marriage afflicted with a sexually-transmitted-disease.

Civil Annulment vs. Civil Nullity

Civil annulment was generally based on vitiated consent; whereas, civil nullity was
generally based on psychological incapacity.

Then, whenever civil annulment was granted to the spouses, the marital union between
these spouses remained valid until such time when the very decree of annulment was handed
down to them; whereas, whenever civil nullity was granted to the spouses, the actual effect
was like no actual marital union took place, the marriage being void ab initio.

Marital Obligations

Psychologist need to determine whether the spouses who wanted annulment have either one
or both of them was psychologically incapacitated to perform his or her essential marital
obligations.

1. obligation to live together as husband and wife under one roof

2. obligation to render mutual love, respect, support and loyalty for each other
3. obligation to refrain from engaging in any activity that would put his or her other spouse at
the risk of death, danger, or injury

Psychological Process
1. Client Intake
2. Psychological Assessment
 Ideally both the petitioner and respondent should undertake psychological assessment
 Most instances the respondent will not appear for psychological assessment despite
receiving letter of invite from the psychologist

3. Corroborative Accounts
 At least two witnesses who had personal knowledge of the marital relationship
 Ideally and useful would also include personal knowledge of the spouses’ premarital
background.
4. Collating Data
5. Decision of Psychological Incapacity
 At this point the forensic clinical psychologist decide whether or not either or both the
spouses were psychologically incapacitated
6. Forensic Mental Health Assessment Report (FMHAR)
 More popularly known as the psychological evaluation report
7. Judicial Affidavit
 This document together with FMHAR will be forwarded to the respondent’s legal
counsel and to the trial court.
8. Court Appearance
 When the credentials qualify and are accepted will lead to actual appearance in court as
expert witness.
9. Decree

Contested vs Uncontested

Contested
 When the respondent spouse simply agreed to everything that was said in the petition or
the respondent spouse failed to file an answer for whatever reason, the petition filed
would be characterized as uncontested

Uncontested
 If the respondent spouse filed an opposition

Uncontested Contested
  Court will assign public prosecutor to  Forensic clinical psychologist would be
investigate for possible collusion. more rigid and strict in the conduct of
 A representative of the Office of the psychological assessment.
Solicitor General would have the  Assessment procedures should be
authority to investigate for possible Daubert and Frye compliant
collusion as well.
 Under the country’s family law,
collusion between spouses is not
allowed.

Psychometric Tests

Objective
 Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory (MMPI-2-RF) and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-
III (MCMI-III) are two of the popular objective test that had been identified as Daubert and
Frye compliant
Projective
 Rorschach Inkblot test; Thematic Apperception Test, and projective drawings which had
been highly criticized in the empirical literature as having low clinical utility continue to
be used and allowed in the court setting by the trial court judges.
Battery of Psychological Tests
 Combining both the objective and projective test tended to bring about a more reliable
and credible result.

Additional Forensic Documentary Evidence

 Financial accounts
 Social Media accounts
 Love letters
 Travel documents
 Marriage certificate
 Birth Certificate/Certificate of Live birth of their children.

Roles and Responsibilities

1. Educate Clients
 Regarding the outset, on the scope and limitations of the professional services rendered by
the forensic psychologist.
 Possible content of professional service agreements
 Requirement of the client to undertake the psychological assessment
 Obligation to disclose fully all clinically relevant facts and details
  Obligation to provide two competent and independent corroborative witnesses

2. Be aware of the landmark cases

 Cases that takes precedence and could be used to increase reliability and base
assessment procedures.
3. Educate lawyers
4. Educate fellow forensic clinical psychologists

Cross-Examination
Judicial Affidavit
 Would serve as his/her direct examination testimony in the trial court proceedings and
provided that he or she is qualified, the cross examination would ensue.
 Information in the forensic psychologist’s direct examination testimonies would be the
source of the questions in the cross-examination.

Cross-Examination
 Intended to debase the psychologist’s accounts
 If questions are categorical, expert should answer categorically with a yes or no
 If not, psychologist need to simply both admit and deny his/her response; it simply
means initially admitting the dependent clause and later on denying the independent
clause. Then later on ask the trial court’s permission to be allowed to qualify his/her
response.
 If issue surfaces regarding credibility, the psychologist could then readily point to the
fundamental principles of his or her impartiality. He or she could then cite his or her
status as an amicus curiae or a friend of the court whose loyalty belonged to the court
who first and foremost stood for the truth.