If you’re considering divorce and you have a prenuptial agreement in place, then it may give you a sense of calm. It may give you some reassurance knowing that you and your spouse have already made many critical decisions. You may feel like you don’t have to worry about losing assets or other issues that other divorcing spouses do. You may like having that built-in predictability.
Of course, all of that is only true if your prenup is actually valid. What are some things that could invalidate it?
A lack of consideration time could invalidate your prenup
Both you and your spouse needed to have time to completely read the prenup and carefully consider its terms before signing it. A document signed the day or even the week before the wedding may not stand. A judge may want to ask to determine if you or your spouse carefully weighed the concessions that you were making when you signed the prenup before deciding if it is valid or not.
Any signing of a prenup under duress may invalidate it
Parties to a prenup must sign it of their own free will. You can ask your spouse to sign, but you cannot put any extra pressure on them to do so. A judge could invalidate a prenup if evidence suggests that one spouse pressured the other into signing the prenup.
A prenup that crosses legal lines may be invalidated
A prenup has to be legal and cannot force someone into illegal action. It also cannot include legal decisions regarding certain topics, such as child custody. If your prenup crosses these lines, then those sections — or even the entire document — could be thrown out.
There’s a long list of factors that could invalidate a prenup
The factors described above aren’t the only ones that could lead to the invalidation of a prenup. There are countless others. This is why it’s critical to understand as much about the law as you can before drafting or using these documents.