Imagine that you and your spouse are going through a divorce and the two of you have a prenuptial agreement. In this agreement, it outlines very clearly that your spouse stands to obtain a majority of the assets from the marriage, among many other things. Objectively, you drew the short straw, and you aren’t feeling very happy when the two of you go to family court.
But a funny thing happens in that courtroom. A judge, after reviewing your prenuptial agreement and considering the circumstances of your marriage (and now divorce) reveals that he is not accepting the prenuptial agreement due to its unbalanced and unfair nature. You breathe a sigh of relief. Your spouse, conversely, looks off into space in a stunned fashion.
This can happen, even though you may not think it’s possible. Prenuptial agreements can be challenged or thrown out, even though they may seem like ironclad documents that no lawyer could possibly debunk.
Consider another scenario where a married couple has a prenuptial agreement, except that this document was signed the day before their wedding. One of the spouses brought up the topic just days before that, and pressured his or her spouse to sign the document before they walked down the aisle. Now, years later, they are going through a divorce. That prenup could certainly be challenged for being signed under duress, and it could be considered a fraudulent document, potentially leading to the nullification of the contract.
There are many circumstances that can lead to a challenged prenup, and people should not think that these contracts are written in stone.
Source: Huffington Post, “When a Prenup Gets Thrown Out,” Stann Givens, July 1, 2014