By: Jacqueline Keenan Unlike a divorce, which is the end of a marriage between two individuals, an annulment declares that a marriage never existed. This is a rare procedure and has very narrow requirements in North Carolina.
Requirements for Annulment in North Carolina In order to procure an annulment, it must be shown that the marriage is void or voidable. The only situations in which an annulment can be granted are:
All of the other factors are “voidable”, meaning that there is a problem with the legality of the marriage that can lead to the marriage being erased if an annulment is procured. Because these marriages are not immediately void, they may be ratified by the conduct of the parties—meaning if you continue to live together or have children together, you may not be able to seek an annulment. If an annulment is not possible, then it is time to consider a divorce. I think I qualify for an annulment. Now what? Contact Adkins Law! We are happy to help you determine if you are in fact eligible for an annulment, and what your next steps should be!
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By Elspeth Crawford According to the FBI, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S., with over 700,000 victims a year. Learning about how it is commonly committed can help you prevent it from happening. Ordinary Theft Identity thieves increasingly make use of high-tech methods to poach personal information, but ordinary theft is still a distinct possibility. Identity thieves can go rooting through your trash for identifying information about you, steal mail from out of your mailbox, or simply snatch your wallet or purse from a public place. Shoulder-Surfing If he or she has a good memory, an identity thief can get a prolonged look at your personal information, say your credit card number, in a public place and then memorize that number for later use. Skimming Identity thieves can use small credit card readers to copy and later use the information on a card’s magnetic strip. This practice is called skimming. Skimming most often occurs when people turn their credit cards over to another person who then runs it through a card reader. This doesn’t mean that you have to walk back to the kitchen every time you use your credit card to pay at a restaurant, but be wary of letting your card out of sight at establishments you do not trust. Phishing Phishing occurs when an identity thief sends a fake e-mail to a user claiming to be from an institution which the user trusts. The identity thief might, for example, send a user an e-mail purporting to be from their bank and telling the user that there is a problem with one of their accounts. The user would then be directed to a phony website and tricked into giving away personal information in an attempt to fix the made-up problem. Related to phishing is pharming, a practice which also makes use of phony websites but does not involve using e-mails to trick a user into visiting those websites. Instead, pharming redirects users to a phony website even if they type the correct website address into their browsers. Careful monitoring of your spam folder and keeping your malware protection current can help protect against phishing and pharming behavior. Wireless Hacking Be wary of connecting to the internet via an unprotected wireless network. Such networks are easier to hack into than password-protected networks, and your information could become pray to identity thieves. Hard-Drive Rebuilding Many people keep sensitive information on their hard drives. When it comes time to get a new desktop computer, be sure to erase the data on your hard drive before disposing of it. Otherwise, enterprising identity thieves may be able to rebuild your hard drive and extract information from it. Laptop Theft Likewise, be cautious when taking your laptop out in public. Laptop theft is increasingly common, and thieves can use the information stored in a laptop to your disadvantage. The same applies to Smartphones, which are even easier to steal than laptops. Social Networking Many people post personal information on social networking sites like Facebook. You’re unlikely to put something like your social security number of Facebook, but the information you do provide can allow identity thieves to put together a profile of you they could use to get more sensitive information. For this reason, be wary of accepting invitations from people you do not know. Computer Security Attacks The reality is that even if you are not careless about your personal information and have it registered only with reputable institutions, you may still be vulnerable to identity theft. Identity thieves can hack into the records of such institutions and steal those records, or someone at the institution could steal them from within. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in the USA documented over 900 data breaches by major firms over a period of three years which resulted in a total of 200 million records being compromised. No method of protection is absolute, but it’s fully within your power to minimize risk. If the worst should happen, know what steps to take following an identity theft. |
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