PRENUPTIAL AND POSTNUPTIAL AGREEMENTS ARE ON THE RISE

Prenuptial Agreement (Photo credit: E.Briel)

Last year – when I was practicing in Georgia - I published a handful of articles regarding the increased usage of premarital agreements and discussed some of the more obvious (and some less than obvious) situations that are amenable to such agreements.  I recently received my Family Law Quarterly, published by the American Bar Association, a substantial portion of which is dedicated to the passage last summer of a uniform law for marital and premarital agreements (Here’s a link to the act itself: http://bit.ly/SWrBSF.  The timing seems right to update last year’s material and to discuss the typical requirements for recognition of prenuptial agreements (and post-nuptial agreements) here in Alaska as the courts have viewed the subject.  In keeping with my New Year’s resolution (yes, I do those), I’ll be posting blogs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays over the next couple weeks to provide some current information and open the subject up for a conversation.  The more feedback we get from different perspectives, the more interesting the conversation.

WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE FILE FOR DIVORCE IN JANUARY?

Day 150: And that's that. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was just remarking to someone last week that January sees more divorce filings than any other month of the year, and that my telephone was evidence of that fact. Why do so many married folks push through the holidays with the intent to file for divorce – or at least learn about their rights – once the page on the calendar turns? Several reasons come to mind. Some families endure through the holidays for the sake of their families. Some are looking to a new start to more than just the calendar – sort of a New Year’s resolution. Some people are under the impression that other benefits exist to starting the divorce process at the beginning of year.

Randy Kessler is a family law attorney in Atlanta who I have an immense amount of respect for. And as fate would have it, the same thing is apparently on his mind in Georgia. See his post at http://linkd.in/UNYgFc.   The comments to his post are pretty interesting too.

If you started your divorce or dissolution at the beginning of the year, let us know what your thought process was.