Can I Contest My Prenuptial Agreement After I Am Married?

March 24th, 2024 by Tiffany Hughes

Prenuptial agreements in the 21^st century are becoming increasingly popular, with many couples deciding to protect themselves and also limit court litigation and save thousands and thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees in the event that their marriage ends in a divorce.

What is a Prenuptial agreement?

A prenuptial agreement, commonly referred to as a “Pre-Nup” is an official document that is designed to make a divorce easier and less complicated. The purpose of a prenuptial agreement is to help make the divorce proceedings less hostile, reduce litigation, make the divorce process straightforward and streamlined with defined terms, and save you money in legal fees. It allows you and your soon to be spouse to be in control of how assets and debts are divided during a divorce and how those assets and debts will be defined.

How Can I contest my Pre-Nuptial Agreement?

If you and your spouse executed a prenuptial agreement before your marriage but are now you find yourself getting divorced and you are hoping to change the terms of the Pre-Nup, you may be able to do so. While a Pre-Nup is difficult to change, there are ways to challenge a Pre-Nup.

Prenuptial agreements can be contested or invalidated if any of the following reasons are present:

Fraud

In your prenuptial agreement, both parties must disclose their finances, including their assets. Oftentimes in a divorce, one or both parties will underestimate their assets to hide or undervalue their net worth. This is in attempt to minimize maintenance (formerly known as alimony) or child support. This tactic is also sometimes used when drafting a prenuptial agreement. Just as assets can be hidden, the same can be true for debts. If your ex has hidden debts or assets that were not declared at the time of the prenuptial, you may have an argument to challenge the terms of the prenuptial agreement based upon fraud.

Unreasonable or unfair clauses

During divorce proceedings, if both parties agreed to the pre-nuptial clauses, then a Judge is more likely to honor those clauses. You can contest this if you believe any of those clauses are unreasonable or unfair. For example, if a clause calls for either party to maintain a certain weight or one party is allocated all the assets in a divorce, then a Judge can deem portions of the pre-nuptial agreement as unreasonable and decide to invalidate that clause or make a finding that the entire pre-nuptial agreement is unreasonable.

Issues with Drafting and the Execution of a Pre-Nuptial Agreement

The last thing that you want to do is try to play lawyer and draft your pre-nuptial agreement. That is why the majority of the pre-nuptial agreements are written by Attorneys. Generally speaking though, if the pre-nuptial agreement was either poorly written, vague, or executed incorrectly the whole pre-nuptial agreement may be deemed invalid.

Drafting a Pre-Nuptial Agreement without Legal Representation

Drafting a prenuptial agreement with both parties represented by different lawyers can protect you from being taken advantage of and afford you the requisite knowledge that you need to enter into a Pre-Nup. As such, if you were not represented by a lawyer when drafting and executing your “Pre-Nup” and you can prove you or your spouse lacked the mental capacity or one of you pressured to sign it, then you may have grounds to dismiss the Pre-Nup entirely.

What should I consider when getting a Prenuptial Agreement?

Setting Expectations

If you’re getting married and want to have a prenuptial agreement drafted, it’s important to discuss this with your future spouse and explain your intentions. No-one enters a marriage expecting it to end in divorce, but it happens. Explaining your reasoning to your partner can help manage expectations and help ease their mind. If both parties agree, then the proceedings can begin.

Do I need a Prenuptial agreement

Knowing when a prenuptial agreement is necessary or helpful is important. Regardless if you have a lot of assets now or not, setting the terms of what you and your future spouse agree upon now is critical. This pre-nuptial agreement may be your saving grace in a divorce.

Declaring ALL your assets

This step often gets overlooked which effects allocating assets. As mentioned before, if any assets are left out and under or over-valued, this could allow for the terms of the pre-nuptial agreement to be challenged during a divorce. To avoid this, make sure every asset is declared so that it can be protected in the divorce.

Getting Separate attorneys

As explained above, not having an attorney opens you up to vulnerabilities later and for challenging the pre-nuptial agreement in the future. When both parties hire an attorney from separate Firm’s, it minimizes the bias of one attorney representing both parties and skewing the terms. If both parties are represented by an Attorney it often negates the ability to argue that one spouse was under coercion or duress to enter into the prenuptial agreement.

Know what a Prenuptial agreement does and does not do

Prenuptial agreements help allocate assets and interests. However, it does not allocate decision making, child support or any child related matters in a divorce. Having a prenuptial agreement is extremely helpful in a divorce, but because child related matters are solely determined based upon what is in the best interests of the children, you can’t contract that away. This is where a highly experienced divorce attorney comes into play to assist you with explaining the prenuptial meaning, the prenuptial cost, drafting a prenuptial checklist, what the purpose of the prenuptial agreement is, allocating assets and contesting a prenuptial agreement.

How much does a Prenuptial agreement cost?

Every case is VERY different, just like each divorce. Each agreement depends on how many clauses or assets each party wants to settle and if one or more attorneys are retained for the agreements. Additionally, it is not uncommon that one attorney does more work during the process than the other future spouses Attorney. This will obviously skew how much each individual pays. However, there is strategy behind all of it. With hiring experienced Attorney’s in Family Law that solely practice in this area, strategy will all be explained to you so that you can make the decision that makes the most sense for you and your situation.

Need More Information or Representation?

If you are looking to have a prenuptial agreement drafted, are looking to having a post-nuptial agreement drafted, are trying to invalidate the current prenuptial agreement or post-nuptial agreement in place, or are filing for a divorce, give The Law Office of Tiffany M. Hughes, P.C. a call today at 773-893-0228 for a confidential, complimentary 30-minute phone consultation or email Tiffany Hughes directly at Tiffanyhughes@thugheslaw.com. Our entire practice is solely dedicated to the area of family law. We are extremely experienced in helping client’s draft prenuptial agreements, as well as drafting postnuptial agreements, challenging prenuptial and postnuptial agreements and providing representation in high asset and complex divorces, all while protecting your privacy and advocating for your best interests.

About Tiffany M. Hughes, Divorce Attorney, Principal, Managing Partner, The Law Office of Tiffany M. Hughes:

Tiffany M. Hughes is a divorce attorney and Managing Partner of The Law office of Tiffany M. Hughes. Recognized as a Top 100 Lawyer in Lawyers Magazine in 2018 and 2019, Super Lawyer from 2016 to date, and in addition to numerous other accolades, Ms. Hughes represents individuals in all aspects of family and matrimonial law proceedings, including litigation, mediation, allocation of parental responsibility (formerly known as custody), parentage, divorce and other child-related matters.

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