BEFORE YOU TIE
THE KNOT
So you have found the perfect apartment, the perfect man or woman and now it is time to plan your perfect wedding. Yippee! You have dreamt about this day for as long as you can remember and now the day is finally here, or almost here. However, before you book the venue, send out your invitations or decide on which one of your friends get the coveted title of being maid of honour/best man, there are a few things you should pause long enough to think about because they can make the difference between the wedding of the year or the nightmare that never seems to end.
For many couples, while the idea of your marriage not working out may be as far-fetched as your dog Flossie handing you a cup of coffee as you get out of bed, the fact is that a number of marriages do end in divorce. Therefore, before you walk down the aisle, you should take a moment to consider these three (3) important facts.
Marriage is a Serious Financial Commitment
When two people get married they vow to love, comfort, honour and keep each other “for better or worse, richer or poorer and in sickness and in health” as long as the marriage lasts. Therefore, upon marriage, each party assumes certain financial obligations in respect of the other. It is therefore necessary for couples, prior to getting married, to have discussions on certain money matters, including:
• How will we pay the bills?
• What individual assets will each bring into the marriage?
• How much debt does each person have?
• Who will decide the “big ticket” items and how much money to spend on them?
• Will we have separate accounts or will there be joint accounts?
By asking these questions, each person is attempting to assess, as best as they can, whether he/she can afford to take on the financial commitment that comes with being married. It is important for persons intending to get married to do this because after you are married if a party wilfully neglects to discharge his/her financial obligations to the other spouse in circumstances where the other spouse is in need of it, the “needy” spouse could apply to the Court for an order to force them to do so. What is most interesting about this is that the parties do not have to be living together as husband and wife; all that is required is that they are married to each other. So, it is possible that one spouse could find himself/herself under an obligation to maintain the other spouse even in situations where the marriage is practically “over”.
Divorce is Not that Simple
This brings us to the second point we want to make which is that getting a divorce may not be that simple. There is a well-known saying that ‘marriage is easy to get into and hard to get out of’ and unfortunately, this is often very true. Under Anguilla law, while the decision of whether you get married is largely up to you, the decision on whether you stay married is a matter for the High Court. This is so because only the High Court could lawfully dissolve or bring an end to your marriage. Therefore, to get a divorce you must make a formal written request called a “petition” to the High Court asking it to end your marriage.
If knowing that you cannot unilaterally decide to end your marriage is not enough to make you pause before you act, then the fact that except in very limited cases, the Court will not hear your petition for divorce unless you have been married for at least 3 years should make you stop and think. This is sometimes referred to as the “three-year rule” and its aim is to make the parties understand that the decision to marry should not be made lightly.
Moreover, even if you have satisfied the “three-year rule”, the Court is not obligated to grant your petition unless the Court (not you) is satisfied that your marriage is over. Additionally, in certain situations, the Court may even decline to grant your petition even though the marriage is over if to do so will result in grave financial or other hardship to your spouse.
What’s Yours is Theirs
This therefore brings us to the final fact we wish for you to consider which is what happens when your marriage does not work out and you finally decide to get a divorce. The High Court has the power to make certain orders adjusting the ownership of any property owned by one spouse in favour of the other and that includes property acquired during the marriage even if it is a gift from family members. Therefore, the old adage, “what’s yours is mine” may very well be applied to you.
For many persons, the thought that property owned by them could be given to the other spouse on divorce is not something that is at the forefront of one’s mind when one is planning to get married. In fact, thoughts such as ‘what I would like for the bachelor party’, where I want to spend our honeymoon’ or ‘should I invite my ex to the wedding’ seem to take precedence. You should nevertheless pause long enough to ask yourself: is a Pre-nup right for me?
A Pre-Nuptial Agreement (Pre-nup) is a legal document in which the parties agree the financial rights and obligations of each spouse and how property owned by them are to be distributed if the marriage were to end. If you consider entering into this type of agreement, you should however be aware that there are strict legal formalities which must be met in order for the agreement to be ruled valid and enforceable. Therefore, you should consult a lawyer before you act.
Conclusion
So, before you make that non-refundable deposit to the caterer, it is important that you are sure that this is really what you want to do.
THE LAW & YOU is a public legal education column written fortnightly by KEITHLEY LAKE & ASSOCIATES, Attorneys-at-Law, The Law Building in the Valley (tel:264-497-2069). The views expressed herein are not, and are not intended to be and should not be taken as, a substitute for legal advice. Please send your comments and questions to thelawandyou@anguilla-attorney.com.
