Turns out, ‘I didn’t understand,’ is not a legal defense once you've signed a contract

[00:00:00]Can you just get that agreement overturned later? It's a good question and one that I get all the time. And whether we're talking about a separation agreement or a prenuptial agreement or literally any other contract that you've signed, chances are your state already has laws in place for when and how these agreements can be challenged and under what circumstances. In Virginia, you have to demonstrate both that the agreement is unconscionable. Basically, it is so bad that no reasonable person would have signed it. And also, you have to prove duress. Basically, it was so extreme that it was like someone was holding a gun to your head. Otherwise, you never would have done it. Can you prove those things? Do you have both of those things? And even if you do, do you have enough resources to sustain the kind of litigation that you would need to prove to go through to prove that you meet the criteria that the law requires.

[00:00:52]If we're talking about a prenuptial agreement, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you were already the lesser earning spouse. If it's a separation agreement and we're worried about things like support, which is generally why we go back and revisit these agreements, chances are you need that support to survive. So, having the money on hand for the litigation is kind of the challenge already. So, even if you were able to overturn that agreement, you would need to come out of pocket a lot up front and that would almost certainly not be something that's recoverable later. So, even if you could challenge it, even if you met all your state's criteria, you might find that actually litigating that issue is more expensive than you thought and therefore not really possible for you. So, always be careful before you sign an agreement, know what you're signing, and assume that you can't back out of it later because chances are you probably can't.