Some people in West Virginia trying to get a divorce wonder whether courts will accept a property settlement agreement that they have entered into with their soon to be former spouse. The answer to that question is generally yes. The court is going to accept and adopt into a final divorce order. It’s not a given that the court will always do it and there are certain things that have to be done to make sure that the court actually accepts the agreement. For example, if the couple getting a divorce have come to an agreement , reduced it to writing, it’s been signed in front of a notary and want to present that to the court, the court is going to go through generally several steps to ensure that the agreement was entered into what we call freely and voluntarily.
This means the court is going to ask you a lot of questions for the most part with most judges, as to whether the agreement was actually entered in a way that was valid. For example, the court may ask whether there are any side agreements outside of the agreement. The court may ask when in front of the judge, whether either one was pressured unduly into signing the agreement. They’re going to ask whether they believe had access to full financial disclosures. This is because that can be a really big issue sometimes in these cases is making sure that there’s a full disclosure of everything prior to it being signed. That’s very important that everybody has a good idea as to the financial circumstances. The court will go through a series of questions and determine whether it’s valid.
The couple divorcing needs to make sure that they cover every last thing that’s out there that is property between the two of you. If they don’t cover everything, it can cause some real problems. It doesn’t matter whether it is separate property or whether you consider it to be separate property or marital property, the court may find that their definition of separate property of marital property may not be consistent with the law. If you don’t include something in the property settlement agreement, there’s a chance that it is completely going to open up the agreement in the future. The couple divorcing needs to make sure that it’s covering every last thing.
If it seems to be on some basic level and a fair agreement that’s within the realm of being consistent with the laws of West Virginia, then it is going to have a better chance of being accepted by the courts. Now, a lot of law firms will actually prepare property settlement agreements for you and your spouse and that’s something that you might want to consider. Another option as well is going to an attorney and seeing if they may be able to draw it up. Since most divorce lawyers will have experience with this, you may have a better chance of the courts accepting the agreement in the divorce as well.
