Quick Outline of the Marital Settlement Agreement

Legal Context for Marital Settlement Agreements

A Marital Settlement Agreement is a kind of contract which can be drawn up by the two primary parties to the legal action of a marital divorce, as provides for the settlement of the various rights, privileges, and responsibilities held by the two individuals without the necessity of further litigation or adjudication.

U.S. divorce laws are, for the most part, formulated and carried out on a state-by-state basis. Thus, the particular Marital Settlement Agreement drawn up in reference to a particular marriage should refer to the applicable laws of that specific jurisdiction and provide against the possibility of provisions which cannot legally go into effect in that particular state.

Subjects for a Marital Settlement Agreement

A Marital Settlement Agreement, as will generally be entered into with the assistance of legal counsel separately retained by both of the parties to the divorce, can most effectively proceed by providing for all of the potentially legally relevant aspects of the legal relationship between the two individuals.

Function of Marital Settlement Agreement

A Marital Settlement Agreement does not itself provide for the legal effectiveness of the severing of the legal relationship between the two parties signatory to the contract in the form of a divorce, nor does it enact the initiation of the legal process of the court considering and potentially approving the rightness of such a legal motion. Often Marital Settlement contracts are drawn up as preambles to entering into an amicable divorce.

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