If you’re considering a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, it’s important to understand the mediation process. In this video a Divorce Attorney Alla Kurolapnik discusses how mediation can help you and your spouse come to an agreement on critical issues like property division and spousal support.

Fri, Sep 16, 2022 4:45PM • 36:53

SPEAKERS

Alla Kurolapnik, Michael Levitis

Michael Levitis  00:04

Good day, everybody, it’s Michael Levitis with Alla Kurolapnik, a divorce attorney. Alla, welcome back.

Alla Kurolapnik  00:11

Thank you, Michael. Good morning.

Michael Levitis  00:13

Thank you for joining us. Alla, you are a different breed of over divorce attorney, usually attorneys push people into litigation, trying to prolong the case, not everybody, but a lot of people do that. You are completely different. You are a strong proponent of mediation, and we discussed in our previous videos what is exactly mediation and divorce, why it’s beneficial. But we will gonna get more into it. Today I want to start off with prenups and postnaps agreement. Whether mediation could be something that could be stipulated, that could be requested in the prenup or postnup agreement. What do you say, Alla?

Alla Kurolapnik  01:01

So first, let me just take a step back and just let everybody know, because I think a lot of the questions that I get when I get clients calling me or just in general when I’m socializing with my friends, postnuptial agreements and prenuptial agreements are legal in New York, they are absolutely enforceable. Especially if they’re done the right way. Both parties need representation. The terms there has to be financial disclosure, transparency with respect to the finances, and they are in fact, enforceable contracts in New York. So now to go to your question whether or not I would advise a client to include a clause in a prenup or a postnuptial agreement concerning mediation. The answer is yes, absolutely. Clients don’t have to agree to it. But I certainly would strongly recommend it. The beauty about the prenuptial and the postnuptial agreement is that you’re entering into these agreements before there’s any marital strife. Normally, when we do the divorce agreements, or the Separation Agreements, people are already in a bad place, they’re already not happy, they’re already looking to uncouple and separate. So these agreements, essentially, you’re entering into at a very happy time in your life. You’re about to get married, or you’ve just gotten married, and you want to make sure while you’re still getting along, that everything’s worked out that in the event, there’s a divorce in the future, you’re not at each other’s throats. And it’s not a protruded prolonged litigation that you have the terms already, with respect, at least to the finances worked out that you can then focus your energy and figuring out if you have children, how to, where custody is going to fall and where the financial obligations with respect to your children are going to fall. It is oftentimes when we do the separation and divorce agreements, I’ll always advise somebody: before you jump to court, see if you can try to work this out with a mediator or if it’s an issue dealing with children, perhaps a parent coordinator. So what I advise that in a prenuptial and postnuptial agreement. Absolutely, I think, because the agreement is going to take away the bulk of the the issues that you’re going to be fighting about financially. Then really the only things left to deal with, if you have a prenup, and assuming that it’ll it’s going to go to be enforced and not vacated or not set aside, then the only thing you’re really dealing with are the issues of the children and spousal support and possibly counsel fees, that’s not already addressed in it. So these are the kinds of things that you can easily mediate before you have to go to court.

Michael Levitis  04:01

It looks like it’s a great idea to have mediation clause in your prenup or postnup agreement. Also I think it’s a good idea to consult with an attorney that actually does mediation, people get an explanation of how it works, how it could be beneficial, and you are one of such attorneys. So here, we give people general advice. It’s a good idea when you are about to get married, and you’re considering a prenup agreement to talk to an attorney like yourself to discuss how mediation would help you and what exactly mediation is going to consist of. For that we give your phone number, your website on the bottom of the screen. If anybody has any questions, please don’t hesitate and contact Alla, and now I’m gonna bring it back shortly with we have a few more questions on prenups and postnups. I want to talk to you in our next video about whether you should employ the use of mediators when you are negotiating the prenup or postnup agreement, because not many people think about that. You think of only going to an attorney, I think going to an attorney who does mediation is beneficial. Right? Also, I want to talk to you on postnup. Everybody knows what a prenup is, right? It’s a part of our culture. Postnup is something you do after you get married. So I want to ask you, why would anybody agree to do it after you’ve already married? So stay tuned for our next video. Thank you, Alla.