Palm City Family Law Attorney

Consulting with a Palm City family law attorney can often help answer your many questions and concerns surrounding your family’s unique situation and case.

Many need assistance with child custody arrangements or child support agreements, while some are wondering about the steps to either establish or disestablish paternity. Others have questions about alimony or spousal support, or they may need help with a prenuptial or post-nuptial agreement.

At Apfelbaum Law, our experienced Florida family lawyers often answer questions about prenuptial agreements. Also called a “premarital agreement” in Florida, a prenuptial agreement is a contract between potential spouses that details how alimony and property division will be handled in the event of a divorce. In the unfortunate event that a marriage ends in divorce, a prenuptial agreement can help ease the transition, allowing both parties to move on with their lives instead of spending months arguing in court.

A prenuptial agreement can allow one or both spouses to protect specific assets they wish to keep in a divorce, like a home or car. Your Florida family law attorney can help you draft it in such a way to determine if one spouse will pay alimony, how much, and for how long. Additionally, individuals who wish to keep their business interests separate in the event of a divorce can protect those interests in a prenuptial agreement. The distribution of retirement plans or life insurance policies may also be decided.

Enforceability of a Prenuptial Agreement in Florida

Sometimes people have questions about whether a prenuptial agreement is enforceable in the state of Florida. This state has used the Uniform Prenuptial Agreement Act (the “UPAA”) since 2007. Under UPAA, the prenuptial agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, and the agreement does not take effect until the couple marries.

Under certain circumstances, the court may find a prenuptial agreement unenforceable. If you feel your agreement should not be enforced, you will need to prove one of the following:

• One party did not sign the agreement voluntarily;
• The agreement was only signed due to fraud, duress, or some type of coercion; or
• The agreement was “unconscionable” or “illegally unfair,” because the spouse challenging the agreement was not given an accurate disclosure of the other spouse’s financial situation, did not waive in writing the right to receive an accurate, fair disclosure of the other spouse’s assets and debts, and did not have or could not reasonably have had knowledge of the other spouse’s true financial situation.

In most cases, the challenging spouse will need to prove he or she did not sign the agreement at all, or did not sign voluntarily due to fraud, duress, or coercion. To prove fraud, you will likely need to prove your spouse lied about assets or debts, had hidden assets, etc. To prove duress or coercion, you will need to prove you were threatened with physical or psychological harm. Thus, a spouse merely stating something along the lines of “I will not marry you if you do not sign the prenuptial agreement,” does not count as duress or coercion under Florida law. Your Florida family law attorney can advise you about the type of evidence you might need to prove fraud, duress, coercion, or your partner’s failure to disclose his or her full financial situation.

Hiring an Experienced & Knowledgable Family Law Attorney

It is rare for the court to find an agreement to be “unconscionable,” without proof the other party failed to provide a full financial disclosure. Just because the agreement allows one party to leave the marriage with more wealth than the other, does not necessarily make it “unconscionable” in the eyes of the court. However, if an agreement is so lopsided that one party may need to go on public assistance to make ends meet, a judge may rule the other party has to pay alimony, even if it was not included in the prenuptial agreement.

If a marriage is annulled or otherwise declared void, the court usually will not enforce a prenuptial agreement.

If you have questions or concerns about divorce, family law, or other Florida legal services, please contact Apfelbaum Law for a consultation. We can be reached at 772-236-4009, or contactus@alawfl.com.