Many people think prenuptial agreements are not likely to be enforced by divorce courts. The opposite is actually true. Prenuptial agreements are enforceable like any other contract. Attorneys like to see prenuptial agreements signed well in advance of the marriage and they like to see both parties represented by counsel in order to further ensure enforceability, but failure to follow those steps are not necessarily fatal.
Recently, the Court of Appeals held a prenuptial agreement was valid, even though signed the day before marriage and even though the wife did not have a lawyer. The Court cited established case law that a person is held to know what they are signing and to know they can hire an attorney if they want to. So, be careful out there when you sign documents; you can’t necessarily claim you didn’t know what you were doing. McLeod v. McLeod, No. 2012–CA–01677–COA (8/12/14)