In 2007, an Alabama civil court of appeals heard a case where a couple was arguing over the enforceability of their prenup. The wife argued that the agreement was unenforceable under Alabama law because she signed the day before the wedding, she did not read the prenup, she did not secure independent legal advice before signing the agreement, the atmosphere around the signing of the contract was coercive, and that the husband did not fully disclose the value of his assets in his schedule of assets appended to the agreement.

The court completely disagreed with the wife. The court explained its reasoning:

• The fact that she did not have an attorney was not (alone) enough to invalidate the agreement.
• For financial disclosure to be proper in Alabama, she did not need to know the exact values of all her husband’s assets–having a general idea of his assets was enough.
• She was a real estate agent at the time and had the wherewithal to understand the impact of a contract, yet still decided not to read it.
• The fact that it was signed the day before was not coercive enough to deem it invalid under Alabama law.

The bottom line? Just because she signed the prenup the day before, without an attorney, and didn’t read it does not mean that the prenup will be thrown out! I mean, it makes sense, right? You can’t just *not* read a contract that you sign and then later use that as a defense as to why it should be thrown out! Plus, it’s not a requirement to have a lawyer for a valid prenup in Alabama, nor are exact values required for financial disclosure.

Brown v. Brown, 26 So. 3d 1210, 1216 (Ala. Civ. App. 2007)

In a more recent case (2022), a wife argued the prenup shouldn’t be enforced under several doctrines of equity (estoppel, unclean hands, and unjust enrichment). She argued enforcing the prenup would unfairly benefit the husband. She claimed he had been unfaithful and had verbally promised to always take care of her financially. She also quit her job to stay home with their kids because he promised to “take care of her” despite having a prenup that stated everything was separate.

The court disagreed with the wife. It noted that the verbal promise to take care of her was not enough to revoke the prenup. The promise was not of “definite and substantial character” so as to induce a party (her) to do something Here, the court essentially said that this promise wasn’t so strong that it induced her to quit her job.

The court also stated that if a prenup is otherwise established as valid, it will not be thrown out based on the parties’ misconduct, such as adultery. In other words, if you have a valid prenup, you can’t get it thrown out because someone cheated just because it’s unfair.

Bottom line? If you sign a prenup and then later quit your job relying on a verbal promise from your spouse to take care of you, get it in writing. And know that cheating won’t be a factor in determining whether your prenup is enforceable.

Ayers v. Ayers, 376 So. 3d 522 (Ala. Civ. App. 2022)