Sunday 10 February 2013

Objectives when applying your Prenuptial Agreement

By Ray Latimer


A pre-nuptial agreement is a professional written agreement, applied for prior to the marriage of a couple, which positions out what will happen should their marriage be result in divorce. In the UK any couple looking at marriage, or a same-sex couple considering a civil partnership under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (UK), may get on a pre-nuptial agreement. An agreement which is put into after marriage isn't a pre-nuptial agreement but a post-nuptial agreement.

Enforceability: Until recently it has been the positioning of the UK courts to not have regard to pre-nuptial agreements when analyzing divorce settlements. Rather financial orders are made with regard to the matters given in section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (UK) which firstly accepts the welfare of any children from the relationship, and then a lot of factors assessing the budget of each party. This has generally triggered 50/50 rulings, leaving partners who came into being married with even more riches than their partner financially damaged.

UK Courts have altered from that position incrementally with the case of K v K [2003] being the first time a pre-nuptial agreement was upheld. Subsequently the court has upheld other agreements, nevertheless they are far from automatically enforceable. The typical status of the courts can be summarized as not enabling pre-nuptial agreements to bring about an unfair result to divorce proceedings, thus it is critical to have concern to the following aspects when creating. It is apparent from cases including Crossley v Crossley that courts can find pre-nuptial agreements to be unjust if one party has not had access to separate legal advice, thus it is important both parties seek advice when creating an agreement.

K v K determined a lack of full disclosure by one party of their resources as another factor courts will consider when deciding if they should give outcome to an agreement's conditions. This appears the most effective course of action is to include a schedule to any agreement with a full list of both parties' belongings. Nevertheless it must be observed that in Radamacher v Granatino [2009] the fact that there had not been full disclosure by the wife was not fatal and the pre-nuptial agreement was upheld. With regards to property it is equally vital to be aware that UK courts will include overseas assets in their willpower so it's a good idea to comprise these in any agreement.

K v K also demonstrates that rushing into an agreement may be unfavourably seen as amounting to duress, it is important to enable sufficient time for proper composing and consideration of an agreement before a union in order to demonstrate an exercise of free will by all parties. If this involves delaying the date of the wedding then it may very well be worth contemplating so you're not confronted with non-enforcement when it comes to a divorce. Due to great need of getting a pre-nuptial right, and the option that all individual cases will have various facts and issues to consider, it's always best to seek specialised legal counsel when composing a pre-nuptial agreement.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment