While many prenuptial agreements will stand up in court and can help define how assets are supposed to be divided during a divorce, some of these agreements do get thrown out. Just because it was signed doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to use it in your divorce.
There are a lot of different reasons for this, such as someone signing the prenup under duress, and one of them is that the person may have lacked the mental capacity to sign. But how would this happen? What are they going to point as the reason they lacked that mental capacity if they’re trying to get the prenup thrown out?
They may suffer from a mental illness or brain disease
One potential reason is if the person has any type of mental illness or a brain disease, or if they were having some sort of a mental episode at the time. They may claim that you exploited that episode to get them to sign the prenup when they really were not in a space where they could think about it or consider it properly.
They may have been impaired by alcohol or drugs
More commonly, people point to alcohol or drug use. If the two of you had been drinking or using recreational drugs when you brought the prenup for them to consider, they may have just agreed to it at the time, but they may regret it later. They may be able to claim that they shouldn’t have to honor the prenup because they were in an altered mental state when they agreed to it and they didn’t really understand what they were signing away.
If you have a prenup that is being contested or if you’re otherwise going through a complicated divorce, always be sure you know about your legal options. Protecting your rights sometimes means re-examining old issues, like whether or not a prenup is even valid.