Texas law allows prenups, also referred to as pre-marital agreements, and judges are encouraged to uphold them. However, many of the pre-marital agreements that I have seen have had major flaws in them. The most common is that the agreement will not have been executed properly. It might not be notarized, when a space is clearly expecting a notary. It might refer to a list of assets and liabilities attached, when there was no list attached. It might state that the other spouse has been given time to meet with an attorney, and there might be a line for an attorney to sign, and the spouse never saw anyone. I have even seen a premarital agreement signed by a woman who barely spoke English and who did not have a translator.

You should never assume that a pre-marital agreement is valid

I am not meaning to say that any flaw discovered in the pre-marital agreement will invalidate it. What I am saying is that you should never assume that a pre-marital agreement is valid, especially if neither party used an attorney. I have succeeded in getting a number of premarital agreements set aside. If you have one, have it looked at by an experienced family law attorney, one that will ask you detailed questions about the circumstances under which it was executed, and who will thoroughly review it. The default answer given without examination, that such agreements are binding, is frequently wrong. Do you have a family law question that you would like to ask a Texas attorney? Post it in the comments below and it may be addressed in a future video.