Divorce

Part of My Prenuptial Agreement is Unenforceable Under Maryland Law. Now What?

June 30, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In Maryland, and across the United States, we have “freedom of contract.” This means that you and another party (or parties) mostly can customize the terms of your agreements however you want without governmental interference. That freedom extends to prenuptial agreements, but it is not without limits. Certain subject matters cannot be controlled by a prenuptial agreement and clauses purporting to do so are necessarily unenforceable. Working with a knowledgeable Maryland prenuptial agreement lawyer can be invaluable in making the document you sign will accomplish the goals you desire to achieve.

Getting your prenuptial agreement “right” is crucial for multiple reasons. For one thing, courts will (due to freedom of contract) enforce most prenuptial agreement provisions as written. However, on the other hand, including an unenforceable provision may substantially damage your overall agreement.

A recent divorce case originating in Prince George’s County shows what can happen when a prenuptial agreement goes wrong. The agreement contained one paragraph that said that if the wife left, filed for separation, or filed for divorce, the husband would get full custody of the couple’s children and the wife would receive “unlimited visitation rights.” Additionally, the wife promised in the second paragraph to raise the children in the Islamic faith.

The High Hurdle Involved in Overturning a Divorce Judgment in Maryland

June 16, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Recently, a Montgomery County husband sought to defeat via appeal a divorce judgment that gave his wife a monetary award of more than $20,000 and three years of rehabilitative alimony. The wife’s success in the divorce trial — and the husband’s unsuccessful appeal thereafter — is yet another reminder of the paramount importance of having a strong presentation prepared for trial, which is one reason why a knowledgeable Maryland divorce lawyer can provide essential aid in your divorce case.

The couple married in Ethiopia in 2003. After 16 years of marriage and three children, they separated in late 2019, filing for divorce in 2020.

At trial, the husband testified that he made $60,000 as a school bus driver and an Uber driver. He also received a $91,000 small business loan in 2020. He alleged that he had $6,800 in monthly expenses, resulting in a monthly deficit of nearly $1,800.

Default Judgments: One of the Many Potential Risks You Face by Handling Your Maryland Divorce Case Without a Lawyer

May 18, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

People who try to litigate their divorce actions without the aid of a knowledgeable Maryland divorce lawyer can fall victim to many potential pitfalls. A recent case originating in Baltimore County, while not a divorce action, nevertheless contains some very valuable lessons for people considering litigating a divorce without counsel.

The dispute pitted a landlord against his former tenant. The landlord’s lawsuit alleged that the tenant owed more than $17,000 in unpaid rent and compensation for property damage. The tenant received her copy of the court papers (which included the landlord’s complaint and a court summons) on Dec. 20, 2020.

The tenant didn’t hire a lawyer. On Jan. 6, 2021, she filed a document with the trial court that she called a “Late Defense,” even though the document was, in fact, not late. She’d made a critical error, though: she neglected to include a “Certificate of Service,” which is a mandatory component of all valid court complaints and responses.

How Your Spouse’s Marital Misconduct May Impact Your Monetary Award in a Maryland Divorce, Even If Yours is Not an Adultery Case

April 14, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Here in Maryland, you have multiple avenues for seeking a divorce. You can pursue a “no-fault” divorce, provided you and your spouse have been separated for at least 12 months. Alternately, Maryland law recognizes six other causes for granting an absolute divorce, each of which revolves around the other spouse’s fault. Whether you’re proceeding with a no-fault divorce or a divorce based on your spouse’s fault, a skilled Maryland divorce lawyer can help you accomplish your goals more fully.

Obviously, if you’re pursuing a “fault” divorce based on your spouse’s adultery, you’re going to need proof of his/her bad conduct. In Maryland, you don’t have to present evidence of actual coupling between your spouse and a paramour; you simply have to establish that your spouse had both the “disposition” and the “opportunity” to cheat.

However, as a recent divorce case from Howard County shows, proof of your spouse’s marital misconduct can be beneficial to your case, even if you’re proceeding with a no-fault divorce.

A First Wife’s Efforts to Get Her Dead Husband’s Second Marriage Annulled Failed Because of Her Excessive Delay

March 17, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

A recent case from Prince George’s County includes some highly unusual facts, including a woman’s 2011-12 effort to invalidate her divorce and her 2020 attempt to annul her husband’s marriage to his second wife… even though the husband died in 2007. While the outcome of the woman’s case doesn’t break new legal ground regarding issues like the division of marital property, it does serve to remind all spouses that, if they think you have a need to take legal action, don’t wait. Instead, get in touch with a knowledgeable Maryland divorce lawyer as soon as possible to begin protecting your rights and avoiding risking losing them due to excessive delay.

A deceased man’s two marriages make for a case in point. It all started when, after four years of marriage, A.P. and his wife, B.P., separated in 1975. They did not, however, get divorced.

In 1991, the husband sought a divorce in D.C. The wife didn’t participate so the D.C. judge granted the man a default judgment of absolute divorce. The next year, A.P. wed again. A.P. and his second wife, M.P. remained together until the man’s death in September 2007.

What to Do When Your Divorce Involves Litigation in Maryland and Out of State

February 14, 2023 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

A skilled Maryland divorce lawyer can provide crucial assistance in most divorce cases. However, there are some types of cases where the aid of knowledgeable legal counsel is especially crucial, and that includes matters that span across multiple jurisdictions.

For one couple in Baltimore County, their divorce spanned multiple countries. The husband was a dual citizen of the United States and Nigeria. The couple married in the Nigerian capital in 2003 but relocated to Pikesville the next year, where they remained until their separation in 2019.

The wife filed her Maryland divorce petition in late May 2021. Three months later, the husband asked the judge to dismiss the petition. The reason? The husband had already filed a divorce petition in Nigeria in October 2020.

Adulterous Affairs, Dissipation of Marital Assets, and Equitable Distribution in a Maryland Divorce

December 30, 2022 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

One of the more painful experiences a spouse can endure is to devote years — or even decades — to a marriage only to discover that your spouse has not been as faithful to you as you’ve been to them. While heartbreaking and sometimes infuriating, your spouse’s infidelity won’t always have much of an impact on the outcome of your divorce… but sometimes it will affect that outcome in a major way. To determine your rights and options if your spouse has been cheating, you need to speak to a knowledgeable Maryland divorce lawyer.

Maryland is one of the states that recognizes both no-fault divorce and at-fault divorce. One of the grounds for absolute divorce under Maryland law is adultery. Even in a case of a divorce on the ground of adultery, that affair may not “move the needle” much in terms of the financial aspects of the court’s judgment. So, if an adulterous spouse is someone who earns only minimal income with few economic opportunities and little chance of becoming self-supporting and the “innocent” spouse has substantial wealth and income, the adulterous spouse may still be entitled to alimony and/or a monetary award, even if the infidelity was the reasons for the marriage’s breakdown.

There’s one scenario, however, where a spouse’s extramarital affair(s) can have a huge impact on those financial elements of divorce, and that circumstance was illustrated in a recent divorce case originating here in Montgomery County.

What Does — and Doesn’t — Qualify as an ‘Unconscionable’ Income Disparity in a Maryland Alimony Dispute

November 30, 2022 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In some states — like Florida, for example — permanent (a/k/a indefinite) alimony is the default for marriages of a certain duration. By contrast, a spouse seeking indefinite alimony in Maryland must prove certain factors unrelated to the duration of the marriage to obtain that kind of award from the court. Those standards can be enormously helpful if you’re opposing your spouse’s request for indefinite alimony, but you should never take anything for granted in your divorce case. Instead, ensure that you’re protected by retaining an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer to handle your alimony matter.

In Maryland, a trial court may award a divorcing spouse indefinite alimony only if the judge finds that “due to age, illness, infirmity, or disability, the party seeking alimony cannot reasonably be expected to make substantial progress toward becoming self-supporting” or that, even after the spouse seeking alimony made the maximum amount of progress toward becoming self-supporting “as can reasonably be expected,” the spouses’ “respective standards of living… will be unconscionably disparate.”

In one Montgomery County couple’s alimony dispute, the husband emerged successful because the wife failed to clear either of these hurdles.

Sweating the Small Stuff: How Diligently Tending to All the Details Can Be Essential to Having an Enforceable Prenuptial Agreement in Maryland

November 17, 2022 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Statistical research says that as many as 80% of people of divorced people will eventually remarry. The bad news is that second and subsequent marriages have a greater than 60% chance of ending in divorce. What’s all that mean? It means that, before you embark on that second or subsequent marriage, it is wise to consider pre-marital planning — such as a prenuptial agreement — before you wed. An experienced Maryland family law attorney can help you go about taking all the necessary steps to protect what you’ve built up to this point in your life.

A fairly negotiated and properly executed prenuptial agreement can be a huge help if you and your new spouse-to-be both have substantial wealth. It can be of even greater value if you have amassed wealth and your spouse-to-be has not, as one recent prenuptial agreement case from Baltimore County helps to illustrate.

In the Baltimore County case, the husband was a man in his early 50s who owned a successful construction and refrigeration business. He’d been married once, having divorced after 25 years, and had four adult children. The wife was in her late 20s, had a 12-year-old daughter, and according to the court, “was employed at an adult entertainment establishment” when she met the husband.

How Avoiding Procedural ‘Missteps’ Can Be Critical to Success in Your Maryland Divorce Litigation

October 17, 2022 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In a very recent case opinion announced by the Court of Special Appeals, the court wrote that “[s]ometimes one misstep early in a case can have repercussion for the rest of the case.” Those kinds of damaging missteps can include, among other things, failing to comply with all the pretrial deadlines the trial court sets. Whether it is managing deadlines, accumulating evidence, securing expert witnesses, or tending to any of the other essential “details” that go into a successful family law case, make sure you’ve retained the services of an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer to handle your matter.

These things may sound small, but a shortcoming — even just a single one — potentially can have massively harmful results, as a recent Montgomery County case demonstrates.

R.Z. and D.Z. were parents going through a child custody case. In any kind of civil case in Maryland, all parties will receive something called a “scheduling order.” This is an order that sets various dates and deadlines, like the trial date, pre-trial conference date, discovery deadlines, and so forth. One of the things generally included in these kinds of orders is the deadline for parties to designate their expert witnesses.