Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Court Approval of Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements

I started thinking about this issue of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements this morning.   I have argued both sides before of setting them aside and seeking to uphold them.  Another issue on these is that custody cannot be contracted for in them.  This would particularly be the case where a child is not even born yet.  One idea I think that needs to be investigated is whether a joint petition for declaratory judgment signed off by both parties at the time of the agreement may be helpful with the same being approved by the Chancery Court.  This way you would have court approval that the agreement is valid and binding.  In theory, you might be able to address custody in the agreement if the child is already born.  For policy reasons, I see an uphill battle if the child is not born yet.  This could also, if drafted correctly, subject the agreement to modification standard as opposed to an initial custody or property division standard.

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