Can a Prenuptial Agreement Make a North Carolina Divorce Faster?

If you’re approaching a divorce with an existing prenuptial agreement, you might be wondering how this document will affect your divorce. You might be particularly unsure of how this contract works if you have been married for many years. In theory, your prenuptial agreement should make your divorce easier. But will your prenup also make your divorce faster? As with so many other divorce-related questions, the answer is “it depends.” To receive personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances, consider speaking with an experienced divorce lawyer in North Carolina.

Prenuptial agreements can speed up divorces under the right circumstances. The logic is simple: With an agreement already in place, you do not need to go to court or negotiate in private with your ex. All of the relevant topics could be covered under your prenup, and you may only need to “follow the instructions” without any further negotiations or litigation.

Not only does a prenup speed up this process, but it may also remove a lot of the stress. You won’t need to worry about heated negotiations involving property division or alimony. You and your spouse will have already agreed on these issues, so you can simply move on with your life. Assuming the prenup is valid and enforceable, you will also avoid litigation. While negotiations can be time-consuming, litigation takes even longer and is usually much more stressful.

With all that said, there is no way to avoid the mandatory one-year separation period in North Carolina. Even if you have already agreed on all of the important issues related to your divorce, you still need to wait 12 months before you can formally end your marriage in the Tar Heel State. This “cooling-off” period means that your divorce will take a minimum of 12 months in North Carolina.

Even so, reducing waiting times to their absolute minimum is advantageous. In addition, you won’t have to spend those 12 months negotiating during collaborative law or mediation, which is what many spouses end up doing. Instead, you can move on with your life, go on vacation, explore new work opportunities, and trust that your prenuptial agreement will make the legal process relatively easy to handle.

Many spouses enter into marriages before they have children. As a result, their prenuptial agreements do not mention anything about children. Even if they did, such additions would almost certainly be unenforceable. A prenuptial agreement cannot control child custody, child support, and most other decisions regarding your children.

As a result, your divorce might take longer if you have children. Although you might have a prenuptial agreement, this will have little to no effect on your child custody and child support proceedings. On the positive side, your prenuptial agreement should at least handle alimony and property division, allowing both parents to focus entirely on the best interests of their children.

Note that disputes often arise over child support and child custody. If you cannot work out these disputes through alternative dispute resolution (ADR), you’ll need to do so in court. A litigated child custody battle could add years to your divorce, and it may completely cancel out the time-saving benefits associated with your prenuptial agreement. You should consider mediation, arbitration, or collaborative law if you want to streamline these child-related issues.

If you or your ex wants to challenge the enforceability of your prenuptial agreement, this may also make your overall divorce process much longer. For example, your ex may suddenly claim that they signed the agreement under duress. Perhaps you will attempt to argue that you signed the agreement while you were mentally incapacitated. Spouses might also state that the agreement is unconscionable. The family court may need to explore these legal challenges, and this can take a significant amount of time.

If you want to learn more about how a prenuptial agreement will affect your upcoming divorce, consider speaking with an experienced divorce lawyer in North Carolina. Your lawyer can assess your prenuptial agreement and determine how it will affect the legal process ahead. In many cases, prenuptial agreements streamline and speed up the overall divorce process. However, this is not always the case. Consider expanding on this conversation by scheduling a consultation with Arnold & Smith, PLLC.