Also known as: marital settlement agreements · MSA · divorce settlement agreement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A contractual agreement that sets out divorcing spouses' rights and responsibilities regarding property, alimony, custody, visitation, and child support. The agreement is typically incorporated into the divorce decree and becomes enforceable by contempt or other remedies. Courts may decline to enforce the agreement if it is unconscionable or was procured by fraud, duress, or lack of full financial disclosure.
Maurice Marshall and Mariam Mansour negotiated a marital settlement agreement during their divorce. Maurice received nearly all marital assets while Mariam, who had no independent income, received only a small lump sum. Mariam later proved that Maurice had concealed significant accounts at the time of signing. The court set the agreement aside because it was unfair and Mariam lacked full knowledge of the finances.
Mason McCarthy and Melanie Morris included an arbitration clause in their marital settlement agreement covering all disputes arising from the marriage. After the divorce, Mason sought to unwind a prior transfer of business interests. The court compelled arbitration of the property dispute but retained jurisdiction over any request to alter marital status.
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A court may decline to enforce the agreement if it finds the terms unconscionable after reviewing the parties' economic circumstances. The court may then require a revised agreement or enter its own orders for property division and support.
No. An arbitrator may decide property and financial disputes arising from the marriage but lacks authority to grant or deny an annulment or otherwise alter marital status, which remains reserved for the court.
No. Revocation of such designations upon divorce occurs by operation of statute, not by the settlement agreement itself, unless the agreement expressly preserves the designations.
…to give proper weight to the circumstance that Sun was not represented by independent counsel. It asserted with regard to marital settlement agreements in dissolution actions that “the court should ‘carefully scrutinize the agreements’ when the party challenging the agreement did not have the advice of counsel [citation],” and that the…