Marital Settlement Agreement
A Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA) is a contract that you and your spouse may want to negotiate and sign to resolve such issues as child support, parenting time, and division of property and debts.
You may want to sign an MSA if any of the following apply:
- You have children entitled to continuing support.
- Either of you expects support from the other.
- You have significant assets and debts and won't have them all divided before the divorce is final.
- You have other understandings you want in writing.
If you elect to sign an MSA together, you may do so at any time, whether you have begun living separately or not; but it should be done before the time comes to appear in court to end the marriage before a judge.
An MSA may not be appropriate or practical if, for example, too much acrimony or bad blood between the two of you hinders meaningful communication, if one of you procrastinates in the divorce process or simply won't cooperate, or if you couldn't communicate without violating an existing domestic violence restraining order.
An MSA is enforceable as a contract as soon as you both sign it. At the court appearance, the judge normally will accept it as is and attach it to your divorce judgment. The MSA then will be enforceable as if it were a court order.
As an extra service, we can provide you with a computer-generated MSA that includes in it the specific terms you and your spouse have negotiated. If you're not sure what issues to deal with, we can send you a checklist.
We cannot, however, provide advice as to specific provisions. If you need such assistance, consider obtaining either individual legal advice or joint divorce mediation services before having us complete the processing.