Family Attorney - The Importance of Guidance

A family attorney can help you with a wide variety of services including representing you as you embark on a new relationship by preparing a pre nuptial agreement or a cohabitation agreement.

For couples who decide they don’t need a marriage license to be in a committed relationship or whose union would not be recognized by the state as a married couple because they are a homosexual couple in a state that does not recognize their right to marry, a cohabitation agreement can put in place what the courts have not.

To quote Judge Judy, “the court systems have not kept up with real life family situations.” Many couples opt to live together outside of the legally recognized state of marriage and when it falls apart there are no set laws to help.

A cohabiting couple simply is not recognized by the courts the same way a married couple is. Which means if you decide to live with someone it won’t matter how long you cohabite or how much you jointly invest in your home, when it ends, there isn’t any court system in place to help sort it out as relationship fallout and your rights are not protected like they would be in a marriage fallout.

And we all know the statistics about marriage. Half of all marriages end in divorce so it makes sense that the same would hold true for relationships that mirror marriage in every way except for a marriage license.

A cohabitation agreement is simply a legally binding agreement that your family attorney draws up that spells out what both parties expect and what both parties are contributing to the union. If the union falls, the cohabitation agreement also spells out the terms for the “divorce settlement”. Your family attorney can help you work out an agreement that is as complex or as simple as you want and they can help advise you on what you should or shouldn’t include in a cohabitation agreement.

A prenuptial agreement is essentially the same thing; it spells out what the divorce will look like if the married couple split up. Most famously used by people with money and something to loose in a divorce, they are gaining popularity among the less than rich and famous also.

A family attorney can explain the importance of a prenuptial agreement to you even if you don’t have tons of assets. If you are entering a second marriage for example and have kids, a pre nuptial agreement would work to protect your kids and their inheritance, in case of a divorce.

You should be able to believe your spouse would do right by you in a divorce but people can become very angry and embittered in a divorce and their actions won’t always reflect the person you thought you knew when times were good. This is why its just as important to have a family attorney represent you going into a relationship as it is coming out of one.