If you’re in the middle of a divorce and believe that a prenuptial agreement is unfair or should not be binding, there are some cases where you can challenge it in court. Contact a family law attorney in San Mateo as quickly as possible and give them the details so they can give you personalized advice about your situation; but the following are some general things to know about how this can be done.
Can a Prenuptial Agreement Be Challenged in Court?
The simple answer to this question is yes, a prenup can be challenged, but only under certain circumstances. That’s why it’s so important to talk to a lawyer who can tell you whether it’s worth trying to bring a challenge or not in your case. The court may allow you to dismiss a prenuptial agreement under some of these circumstances:
Coercion
A prenup is not valid if both parties did not enter into the agreement voluntarily. If one party put undue pressure on the other to sign, the prenup may be void. This might be directly forcing someone to sign it, or it could be coercing them by threats or pressure. The court will look to see whether the person who did the threatening or pressuring had a position of authority and at the power dynamics involved. In some cases, if a prenup is signed immediately before a wedding, this can be considered undue pressure.
No Full Disclosure
A prenuptial agreement is a contract, and this means that there must be an honest disclosure of all facts related to the terms of that contract. For example, if one spouse hid the fact that they had an enormous amount of debt at the time that the prenuptial agreement was made, this would likely be a valid reason to nullify the prenup. It’s also common for one spouse to hide assets from a prenuptial agreement, and this would also render the agreement void.
Promotes a Violation of the Law
California law mandates that no prenuptial agreement can have any provision that seeks to promote divorce, limit the ability of the family court to decide child custody issues, try to force any particular moral or religious standards on one of the spouses, or attempt to limit child support.
In some states, if there is a provision within the prenuptial agreement that violates the law, the courts will simply ignore that provision while retaining the rest of the prenup. Here in California, the entire contract can potentially be nullified if any single element of it promotes a violation of the law.
It Is “Unconscionable”
Whether or not a prenup is fair is somewhat subjective, but the courts will make a decision here, and your lawyer can tell you whether it’s likely that you could win on this challenge. California law requires that these agreements be fair to both spouses, so if the prenuptial agreement provisions seem to greatly prefer one spouse, there’s a good chance that a family law judge will find it unenforceable.
Tries to Limit Spousal Support Improperly
A prenuptial agreement can never attempt to control issues of child custody or support at all, but it is generally the right of two people about to get married to make agreements about spousal support, so long as those agreements follow the law.
To legally put a limit on spousal support in the prenup, both of the spouses must’ve had their own independent lawyer working with them before they signed the agreement. If either spouse didn’t have this, then the prenuptial becomes void. Also, if the financial circumstances of the couple have changed dramatically since the prenup was originally signed, it is the right of the family court judge to ignore the provisions related to spousal support.
Breaking the “7-Day Rule”
California law has a special rule that requires that a prenuptial agreement must be made in writing, and it must exist in its final form, untouched and unchanged, for seven full days before the couple sign it. If you decide to make edits during that time, the clock resets. The intent here is that both parties have a full week to think about the final prenup before they sign. If you and your spouse did not follow the seven-day rule, the prenuptial agreement could be in validated in court.
How to Challenge a Prenup
Talk to a Family Law Attorney in San Mateo
Your first step should be to talk with the lawyer to get experienced advice from someone who knows California’s family law code and has experience in the local family law courts. An attorney will be able to review your prenuptial agreement and tell you whether you have grounds for challenging it and then how to go about it. Your attorney will also be able to act as buffer and negotiator between you and your spouse through throughout this process and will represent you in court as you bring any challenges.
Prepare a Full Disclosure of Your Situation
To successfully challenge a prenup, you will need to be able to prove one of the elements above. This may mean you’ll have to dig quite hard for evidence that can show the situation at the time the prenup was signed in some cases, and you should be prepared to make a full disclosure of your financial situation and anything that’s happened through the course of your marriage that could influence the judge’s decision. Some of this may be difficult to review, and some of it may be material that you wish to keep private. If you have any concerns, be sure to talk to your lawyer in advance so they can help you decide what you’ll need to disclose.
Wait!
Once you have made the decision to challenge a prenup and gotten your attorney working on it, and once you have gotten all the evidence together and worked with your attorney to put it together into a strong challenge, there is very little you can do other than present it to the court and wait to see what the court will decide to do. There are no guarantees in this situation, but the more experienced your lawyer, the more likely it is that you’re going to get a good result.
What Happens If the Court Invalidates the Prenup?
If you win your argument and the judge decides that your prenup is invalidated, it becomes unenforceable. When that happens, you and your spouse are bound by California state law entirely rather than by the terms of the prenup. Under normal circumstances, a valid prenuptial agreement would override some state law for that specific divorce (so long as nothing in the prenup is actually unlawful), but once your prenup is invalidated, you and your spouse will have to sit down to hammer out a new agreement.
Reaching an agreement is likely to be more difficult if you and your spouse have been fighting over a prenup, but it’s not impossible. Your lawyer can facilitate negotiations, and you may still be able to arrive at a mutually agreeable compromise that will be acceptable to the courts.
For help in challenging your prenup, reach out to us now at Seeley Family Law for help throughout the larger Bay Area.