Post-nuptial agreements do not offend public policy. Nonetheless, they require special scrutiny by the court, because the parties are not adversarial and the agreement is not like a commercial contract. In this case, the parties’ postnuptial agreement, which was last amended about 18 years before marriage dissolution trial, was unconscionable at time of trial: the value of the parties’ combined assets was $927,123 at time of trial but agreement provided wife with only $75,000 cash settlement, and the last amendment was written before the initial success of the husband’s car wash business, before birth of parties’ son, at which time parties were 41 years old, and before deterioration of car wash business.
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Laura Morgan is a Family Law Consultant. Laura is available for consultation, brief writing and research on family law issues throughout the country. She can be reached through her website. www.famlawconsult.com
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