Prenuptial Agreeements

Prenuptial Agreements are agreements between a man and a woman prior to marriage guaranteeing each other certain rights. The major element of a pre-nup concerns limiting the liabilities of each party to the other in case of divorce. Because a pre-nup is only a piece of paper until admitted into evidence by a divorce court judge, they are often worthless.

Legal standing

To be enforced, a pre-nup must be judged as valid by the divorce court judge, euphemistically called “family court.” A pre-nup can be rejected for many reasons including violation of county, state, or federal statute, claim that the pre-nup was signed under duress or under limited mental capacity, claim that the terms were not clearly explained, and so on.

Who benefits from pre-nups?

The parties, the man and woman contemplating marriage, often secure the services of a divorce lawyer to draft the pre-nup. Fees can become many thousands of dollars. Once the pre-nup is signed and the fee paid, the lawyer is no longer part of any proceedings. In particular, he will generally not be called to testify once a divorce is initiated. The document stands for itself. The aggrieved party cannot sue that lawyer for damages if a divorce is filed and the party suffers severe losses, monetary, domicile, other assets, or child custody.

In many cases, as noted, the document is deemed inadmissible.

In short, the only person who wins is the divorce lawyer.