Post-nuptual agreement gone wrong

[wrightconnie]

illinois - i am a homemaker with two children from a previous marriage. for the last two year's of a four year marriage my husband has been leading me on with a post nuptual agreement. his behavior became questionable after two year's of marriage (he was carrying on an inappropriate relationship with two different woman) and in order to get me to agree to continue the marriage he agreed to give me a post nuptual agreement. we've been working on it for over a year, with lawyer's, and everything was finally ready to sign. my husband and i even spoke of the matter in our bedroom and agreed that we were ready to sign. he told me to call my lawyer and set up a date for both of us to sign. when i contacted my lawyer and told him we were ready we received no response from my husband or his attorney. then my husband filed for divorce. now he's trying to stick me with over 30k in debt and completely refusing to go along with our verbal agreement pertaining to the post nuptual. i'm facing walking away with nothing. can he do that? can't i hold him to the agreement, under the circumstances? we worked on it for over a year! he told me he agreed! what am I to do now?

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

illinois - i am a homemaker with two children from a previous marriage. for the last two year's of a four year marriage my husband has been leading me on with a post nuptual agreement. his behavior became questionable after two year's of marriage (he was carrying on an inappropriate relationship with two different woman) and in order to get me to agree to continue the marriage he agreed to give me a post nuptual agreement. we've been working on it for over a year, with lawyer's, and everything was finally ready to sign. my husband and i even spoke of the matter in our bedroom and agreed that we were ready to sign. he told me to call my lawyer and set up a date for both of us to sign. when i contacted my lawyer and told him we were ready we received no response from my husband or his attorney. then my husband filed for divorce. now he's trying to stick me with over 30k in debt and completely refusing to go along with our verbal agreement pertaining to the post nuptual. i'm facing walking away with nothing. can he do that? can't i hold him to the agreement, under the circumstances? we worked on it for over a year! he told me he agreed! what am I to do now?

My response:

An unsigned postnuptual agreement has no force or effect under the law. Verbal agreements concerning marital matters, likewise, have no force or effect.

Now, the Dissolution filing and Petition are all that matter. A Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA) will, eventually, be worked out (using Mediation if necessary), and the court will order all division of assets based upon the MSA. Just remember, when it comes time to sign the MSA, make sure that whomever writes it up places a clause in it that, in effect, makes the debts he agrees to pay, are NOT subject to Bankruptcy.

Don't even bother bringing up or discussing the "postnuptual agreement" because unless it was signed, no one will listen to your arguments in that regard.

Good luck to you.

IAAL