Marital Agreements


Book Description

"... describes and analyzes three types of agreements: premarital agreements, postmarital agreements, and domestic partnership agreements. A premarital agreement is a contract between prospective spouses, including same-sex couples, made in contemplation of marriage. A postmarital agreement is a contract executed by parties to an ongoing marriage and not incident to a divorce or marital separation. A domestic partnership agreement, sometimes known as a cohabitation agreement, is a contract executed by a couple whose domestic arrangements may not be state-sanctioned. However, the term also includes such an agreement executed incident to a civil union or registered domestic partnership. Generally, all of these agreements are used to define the property and support rights of the parties upon termination of the marriage or other relationship by death or dissolution. Some parties also opt to include financial obligations during the marriage or other relationship. This Portfolio does not cover separation agreements that settle property rights, spousal and child support obligations, and child custody matters incident to a separation or divorce"--Portfolio description.




Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements


Book Description

Following its 2011 consultation on marital property agreements, the Law Commission has opened a supplementary consultation on needs and non-matrimonial property, Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements - A Supplementary Consulatation Paper (Consultation Paper No 208). The earlier paper examined the legal status of financial agreements made by husbands, wives and civil partners, often known as 'pre-nups' and 'post-nups'. The most important question addressed in that consultation was the enforceability of such agreements. This extension to the project followed the recommendation from Sir David Norgrove's Family Justice Review Panel for a review of the law relating to financial orders. The review is looking at two specific aspects of the law relating to financial provision on divorce: (i) to what extent one spouse should be required to meet the other's financial needs, and what exactly is meant by needs; and (




Drafting Prenuptial Agreements


Book Description

Prenuptial agreements have exploded over the past 20 years, not only among celebrities, but also for all types of people who desire to protect, manage, or enhance their personal, family, or business assets against foreseen and unforeseen circumstances. Attorneys have been assigned the task of cutting through a morass of issues to create agreements that achieve the goals of their clients while meeting complex, and often subtle, legal requirements. Drafting Prenuptial Agreements is the first guidebook ever to cover this growing area of family law. Written by Gary N. Skoloff and Richard H. Singer, Jr., Skoloff and& Wolfe, Livingston NJ, and Ronald L. Brown, Editor, American Journal of Family Law, Aspen Publishers, Drafting Prenuptial Agreements presents a pragmatic approach to preparing successful agreements quickly and effectively in any situation by grouping together and identifying the common areas that need to be addressed. The authors guide you through planning the agreement and the types of issues to discuss with different clients. This thoughtful organization gives you easy access to the tools you need to clearly present the range of choices to be addressed in each type of agreement and situation. Five sample agreements create broad groupings of issues which let you quickly zero in on the concerns parties at specific stages of life and affluence are most likely to want covered by their prenuptial agreement: YOUNG-YOUNG, EQUAL ASSETSand—For young people in the early stages of promising careers, where each has some assets and wants to protect these, as well as their careers, as separate property. YOUNG-YOUNG, DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETSand—For people of middle age or younger, where one already has, or is likely to acquire, substantial assets, and wants to protect these assets as separate property, while reasonably providing for the needs of the marriage, as well as the spouse and any children upon divorce. YOUNG-OLD, DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETSand—For a couple with a large age disparity, where the older party has substantial wealth which he or she wants to preserve for his or her estate, and also wants to provide for disability or incapacity. OLD-OLD, DISPROPORTIONATE ASSETSand—For an elderly couple, where one party has substantially fewer assets than the other, yet is comfortable, and where both want to protect their separate property, provide for a comfortable lifestyle during the marriage and reasonably provide for the spouse with fewer assets upon death or divorce. OLD-OLD, EQUAL ASSETSand—For older parties with similar assets who want to protect their property as separate, yet provide an arrangement by which they can live commensurate with their resources. Drafting Prenuptial Agreements includes a CD-ROM with sample agreements and hundreds of time-saving clauses!




Matrimonial property, needs and agreements


Book Description

The law gives the courts a wide discretion to make appropriate financial orders when marriages and civil partnerships are dissolved. An important element of those awards is meeting both parties' 'financial needs'. There is evidence of regional inconsistencies in how the courts approach awards for needs which creates unpredictability. And while the law is largely well-understood by family lawyers, it is not clear to the general public. This report recommends that the Family Justice Council produce authoritative guidance on financial needs which would also help to reinforce consistency to how the law is applied in the courts. Some jurisdictions have gone beyond explanation and verbal clarification, producing formulae that generate guideline amounts for payment from one former spouse to another. This report recommends that work be done with a view to assessing whether such an aid to reaching financial settlements could be devised. Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements (referred to together here as 'marital property agreements') cannot be enforced as contracts and they cannot take away the courts' powers to make orders. This report recommends that legislation be enacted to introduce 'qualifying nuptial agreements'. These would be enforceable contracts, not subject to the scrutiny of the courts, which would enable couples to make binding arrangements about the financial consequences of divorce or dissolution. In order for an agreement to be a 'qualifying' nuptial agreement, certain procedural safeguards would have to be met. This report includes a draft Bill, the Nuptial Agreements Bill, which would introduce qualifying nuptial agreements




Prenuptial Agreements


Book Description

Marriage is one of the few personal contracts in which your state dictates the terms—unless you create your own customized premarital agreement. Combining Nolo's legal expertise and plain-English writing, Prenuptial Agreements makes a potentially touchy subject easy to deal with while explaining how to create a valid contract. This easy-to-use book covers: whether a prenup is right for your relationship how to decide what a prenup should include how to deal with special situations, such as one spouse’s debts, business ownership, or kids from a previous marriage how to assemble a draft agreement how to turn your draft into a contract tips on negotiating and communicating This edition of Prenuptial Agreements is completely revised and updated to reflect current state laws, plus worksheets and clauses for preparing an agreement that suits your unique needs.




Family Justice Review


Book Description

The legal framework of family justice in England and Wales is strong. Its principles are right, in particular the starting point that the welfare of children must be paramount. Every year 500,000 parents and children are involved in the system. But the system is under great strain: cases take far too long (the average case took 53 weeks in 2010); too many private law disputes end up in court; the system lacks coherence; there is growing mistrust leading to layers of checking and scrutiny; little mutual learning or feedback; a worrying lack of IT and management information. The Review's recommendations aim: to bring greater coherence through organisational change and better management; making the system more able to cope with current and future pressures; to reduce duplication of scrutiny to the appropriate level; and to divert more issues away from the courts. The chapters of the review cover: the current system; the proposed Family Justice Service; public law; private law; financial implications and implementation; and there are eighteen annexes. The proposals are now out for consultation, with the final report due in autumn 2011.




Marital Property Agreements


Book Description




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.




Bromley's Family Law


Book Description

'Bromley's Family Law' is a well-established and popular textbook with students and practitioners alike. This edition has been updated to take into account recent developments in family law.




Prenuptial Agreements and the Presumption of Free Choice


Book Description

This book provides an alternative perspective on an issue fraught with difficulty – the enforcement of prenuptial agreements. Such agreements are enforced because the law acknowledges the rights of spouses to make autonomous decisions about the division of their property on divorce. Yet this book demonstrates that, in the attempt to promote autonomy, other issues, such as imbalance of power between the parties, become obscured. This book offers an academic and practical analysis of the real impact of prenuptial agreements on the relationships of those involved. Using a feminist and contractual theoretical framework, it attempts to produce a more nuanced understanding of the autonomy exercised by parties entering into prenuptial agreements. This book also draws on an empirical study of the experiences and views of practitioners skilled in the formation and litigation of prenuptial agreements in New York. Lastly, it explores how the court might address concerns regarding power and autonomy during the drafting and enforcement processes of prenuptial agreements, which in turn may enhance the role that 'prenups' can play in the judicial allocation of spousal property on the breakdown of marriage.