Challenging A Florida Prenuptial Agreement

Prenuptial agreements, or ‘prenups,’ are legal and binding contracts between two people who are engaged to be married. The normal purpose of a prenup is to settle certain issues that might otherwise cause contention between the spouses during any future divorce proceedings. However, not every prenup is created equal; sometimes, a document will be either unintentionally or deliberately unenforceable. If this has happened to you, consulting a knowledgeable attorney can be a lifeline.

Is Your Prenup Against The Law?

One of the most important reasons to challenge a prenup’s enforceability is if there is an issue regarding its legality. For example, Florida law explicitly forbids the parties to a prenup from making any decisions with regard to child support (the right to support belongs to a child, not its parents). In some situations, this may be sufficient to declare the entire prenup invalid.

That said, Florida honors what are known as severability clauses – clauses stating that the invalidity of one provision does not make the entire contract unenforceable. If your prenup includes a severability clause, and the clause in question can be excised without affecting any other part of the prenup, the rest of the document will likely be allowed to stand. However, if no severability clause is present, you may be able to get the entire document invalidated.

Unconscionability Means Invalidity

The other major reason for a prenup to be challenged in court is its alleged unconscionability. ‘Unconscionable’ is a legal term that means “grossly unfair,” and while every case is different, a prenup (or any other contract) is held to be automatically invalid if it is unconscionable ‘at the time of its execution.’ For example, if a prenup was executed that left one partner so poor they had to apply for public assistance, this would almost certainly be deemed unconscionable.

Alternatively, the presence of fraud or duress at any point in the prenup’s execution creates an immediate presumption that the document is unconscionable – after all, a valid prenup requires a full accounting of a person’s assets and debts. Failure to provide that means that the terms of the agreement will not have been fulfilled, meaning that technically, no agreement exists.

Contact A Hollywood, FL Prenuptial Agreement Attorney

At its heart, a prenuptial agreement is designed to make life easier for two people intending to marry. However, it is not unheard of for one spouse to use such an agreement as a weapon against the other. If you believe that your prenup is unenforceable or invalid, you can challenge its validity with the help of a Hollywood, FL family attorney from the Law Offices of Steven A. Mason, P.A. today. Call our office at (954) 963-900 for personalized attention.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.079.html