A stark warning in relation to the Validity of Pre-nuptial Agreements

The very recent case of S v H [2020] EWFC B16 (9 January 2020) serves as a stark reminder that there are very strict parameters in which a Court in England and Wales will be willing to consider a pre-nuptial agreement valid and therefore capable of recognition within a financial settlement imposed by the court. 

First a word on the terms used within this short article: ‘validity’ should be taken to mean legally acceptable.  It is not used interchangeably with binding.  Although the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Radmacher (formerly Granatino) v Granatino [2010] UKSC 42 significantly changed the status of pre-marital agreements it did not make them automatically binding on parties.  Rather the court made it clear that in the right circumstances ‘the court should give effect to a nuptial agreement that is freely entered into by each party with a full appreciation of its implications unless in the circumstances prevailing it would not be fair to hold the parties to their agreement’.  Essentially unless it would be unfair to hold a party to the agreement they had entered into either because of the effect of the agreement or some procedural irregularity the agreement would...