Negotiating and Drafting Marital Agreements

Publication Date: 2023
Electronic Forms: 102
Available Formats: Print (830 pages, softcover, 1 volume, forms CD)
Electronic (searchable PDF via flash drive, CD, or immediate download)
Both Print and Electronic formats
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Product #: 859

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Content Highlights

  • The Marital Agreement: Tactics, Strategy, and Ethics
  • Nonmarital, Premarital, and Reconciliation Agreements
  • Support and Property Provisions in Separation and Support Agreements
  • Custody and Visitation Agreements and Arrangements
  • Standard Provisions
  • Income Tax Planning Considerations in Divorce and Separation

“The only Virginia practice manual devoted to the law and practice of drafting marital agreements, this comprehensive book includes detailed discussion of the statutory and case law which underlie the wording of the agreement clauses. Thus, the practitioner is armed not only with the legal and practical reasons for the chosen language, but the tools to defend their choice of wording.” – Richard E. Crouch, editor

Separation agreements are a significant and vital part of every divorce lawyer’s practice. Negotiating and Drafting Marital Agreements provides sample clauses and over 100 forms for creating a marital agreement that is tailored to the needs of both clients while meeting the requirements of Virginia’s statutory scheme and avoiding unwanted outcomes caused by case law or unforeseen events. Prepared by experienced practitioners, the forms include alternative language that may suggest creative solutions to the most difficult dilemmas that can arise when couples separate.

Revisions in this 2023 edition take into consideration, as part of the child support calculation, the payment of unreimbursed medical costs for a child born when the parties were in the process of separating, and also costs paid by either party before birth for the benefit of that child. The child support statutes now state that a party’s incarceration for more than 180 days is no longer to be considered voluntary unemployment, but rather treated as a material change of circumstances. The book includes many new appellate decisions, including one from the Court of Appeals that clarifies that the parties’ failure to resolve every issue in a separation agreement did not invalidate its other terms. New 2023 legislation will also streamline how an attorney can perfect an attorney’s lien, including for domestic relations clients.