Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Property settlement and seperation agreement/divorce
My wife andi have been seperated for 7 months and she has contacted a lawyer for divorce. Her lawyer sent me a document of proposed property settlement and seperation agrement, whereby, she will then file for our divorce. Am i commited to split half of our assets, property ,etc, up-front before she evan files for same. I thought i had until the divorce was final to do split . This is a no-fault/uncontested situation . Thank's
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Property settlement and seperation agreement/divorce
No, the property settlement agreement(PSA) can be agreed to and finalized either before or well after the plaintiff has filed his or her complaint for divorce. However, you are in no way required to agree to a division of marital assets before your spouse has even filed her complaint merely because her lawyer would like to see it happen that way. (As a matter of caution, you would be well advised to have an attorney review any such proposed PSA before you affix your signature to it to assure that in fact you're not getting the short end of the "marital stick", so to speak. Well worth a few hundred bucks.)
Re: Property settlement and seperation agreement/divorce
No you are not required to split your assets/property prior to filing for divorce. Furthermore you should be aware that the attorney is representing your wife--not you--and it would be wise to have the agreement reviewed, and possibly negotiated, by an attorney that you hire, prior to signing. Although there are joint marital assets to be split you should not proceed to do so in a joint fashion (one lawyer) as you are getting divorced and must protect your interests, not your soon to be ex-wife's.
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