While this does not normally happen, it is still a very easy thing to get your prenuptial (or postnuptial) agreement thrown out by a court. One slipup could mean that this financial security goes down the drain, that property division is up in the air, and you have to lose more time, money, and emotion in a courtroom. If you are going to make a prenup, then you want to make sure that it will hold up in court if there is ever a point you need to rely on it. Here then are some simple mistakes to avoid.

1. A big error is for each fiancé to go into the process without their own legal representation. Not only would having this legal counsel help you avert some of the following mistakes, but it would help each party to understand what they are signing off on, enabling them to protect their rights. This could also ensure that a prenup is signed willingly by each party.

2. Because another reason your prenup could be invalidated is if a court believes that one party signed the agreement through coercion. This could also happen if a court believes that someone signed the agreement while they were mentally incapable of making such decisions, such as if they were drunk or using drugs.

3. One way a court will think that a person was forced to sign: if the agreement is drawn up just days before the wedding. If you put together a prenup within a month of the wedding, a court may believe the other party if they claim that they were forced to sign the agreement. Ideally, you should draw up your prenuptial agreement and have signed it at least one to three months before the wedding, if not sooner.

4. If it is discovered that there was a lack of full financial disclosure, then this too could get your prenup thrown out. If debts or assets get left out of the agreement, a court may hold it to be invalid. Both you and your fiancé need to make sure you are thorough in your financial disclosure.

5. Another way you could undermine your prenup is if you put down agreements about child custody or child support. Not only will these portions of the prenup be entirely ignored by a court, but this invalid portion could invalidate the entire document. A court will view any such stipulations to not be in a child's best interests and unenforceable. (Not all child related provisions are invalid, however. For example, if you have children from a prior relationship, you may be able to ensure in your prenup that their inheritance stays untouched.)

6. Other unenforceable agreements could get you into trouble too. While your whole agreement will likely not be at risk because of it, you should not have stipulations along the lines of who will do which chore, or which weight you both need to stay under. Surprisingly, these have made it onto prenups before, and they were promptly ignored by the court. And it may bias a court against your agreement, thinking that it contains too many frivolous content to be worth upholding.

7. Prenuptial agreements are allowed to clearly favor one party over the other, but the agreement cannot be entirely skewed, thus making it "unconscionable". This would mean something like a prenup so utterly impoverishing one party that they would have to go on welfare. A court might modify the prenup in order to even out the agreement a bit more, or the court could go ahead and just invalidate the whole document.

8. If your agreement is not in writing, it will not hold up. Only in the most specific of circumstances would an oral prenuptial agreement be accepted by a court. In normal circumstances, you need to lay out the agreement in writing, preferably making four signed copies of it too, so that way each party and their attorney can have the document.

9. If your agreement is poorly written though, this could come back to haunt you. If the language in your document is confusing or unclear, this could not only open you up to the agreement being seriously misinterpreted, but if the other party challenges it, it could be all too easy for a court to throw it out. This is yet another reason you need a seasoned family law attorney on your side, to make sure that the legal language will hold up in a court.

10. Finally, if you promise to do something in the prenup, but fail to fulfill it, then a court may consider that fraud was committed in the agreement, yet another reason to throw it out. Perhaps an example would help. A millionaire got his fiancé to sign a prenup four days before the wedding by telling her that he would rip up the document once they had a child together. He never kept his end of the deal, so the court invalidated the prenup.

Of course, prenups are not just for the insanely wealthy. The average couple can benefit from its protections too, but only if it will be accepted by a court. In order to ensure that your prenuptial or postnuptial agreement will remain valid, work with an experienced family law attorney. Find the legal expertise that you need and deserve. Call a family law attorney today!