A question that people getting divorced sometimes have in West Virginia is if items a court would not necessarily order can be added to a property settlement agreement? There are certain things that are accepted by the court into a property settlement agreement based on individual judges that are not necessarily items that a judge would order. The judge has authority on certain things that could go into a final order that would not necessarily be in a property settlement agreement. For example, one ex may want the other to pay for college for the kids. This could be part of a property settlement agreement if both of the parties can agree to this.
In other words, once the couple comes to an agreement, then it’s adopted into a final divorce order. Another example of something not necessarily ordered or would be ordered by a judge that sometimes makes its way into a property settlement agreement is life insurance. Another thing that possibly one could see that would be incorporated into a property settlement agreement and that would not necessarily be into an order actually ordered by the judge would be health insurance.
If one would want the other person to be responsible for health insurance, then it is possible to be ordered into a final divorce order as long as it’s incorporated into a property settlement agreement. Those are three things that are sometimes in property settlement agreements that are not necessarily going to be adopted into a final divorce order in a contested hearing. There could be good reasons why one would want to present things to the judge, but there are also sometimes reasons that one may want to come to an agreement on things with their ex. The final divorce order is one part of a divorce that is open to the public. Overall, one should be careful of things that they don’t want to be public and or to be in the final divorce order.
