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Georgia prenup cases: when courts enforced a prenup and when they didn't

Updated November 13, 2026 · General information about Georgia law, not legal advice ·

Georgia's Supreme Court has decided many prenup cases since 1982, when it first allowed agreements that plan for divorce. The same few issues decide most of them.¹

The most common reason a prenup fails is finances that weren't fully shared before signing. Courts threw out agreements where a spouse's income, an account, or the value of a business was left out.^{2, 3}

A big difference in wealth isn't enough on its own to throw one out. Courts enforced agreements that kept one spouse far wealthier when the finances were disclosed and the agreement was signed knowingly.^{4, 5}

Signing mistakes matter too: agreements with too few witnesses were found unenforceable.⁶

The test every case uses

In each case below, the court asks the three questions set out in Scherer v. Scherer: was the agreement the result of fraud, duress, mistake, misrepresentation or hidden important facts; is it unconscionable; and have circumstances changed so much that enforcing it would be unfair. The trial judge decides, and the Supreme Court usually reverses only if the judge abused that discretion.⁷

Thrown out: finances that weren't shared

Corbett v. Corbett (2006). The couple signed three days before the wedding. The agreement said both had read it with their own lawyers, but the wife hadn't read it, had no lawyer, and didn't know how much the husband earned. She had given up alimony, so his income was an important fact, and the court refused to enforce the agreement.
Alexander v. Alexander (2005). The agreement said each side's property was listed in attached exhibits, but no exhibits were attached, and the husband had an investment account of about $40,000 that wasn't disclosed. The court held that she couldn't knowingly give up rights in property she didn't know about.
Dodson v. Dodson (2015). The agreement listed the husband's bank accounts and two businesses but gave no values. He also turned down the wife's offer to help with the businesses' accounting. Listing assets wasn't enough: the court said the law requires a "full and fair disclosure," and the other spouse has no general duty to investigate when that's missing.

Enforced: disclosure that was enough

Dove v. Dove (2009). The husband's financial statement didn't list his income, but it showed his business, investments and two homes, and the couple had lived together for four years. The court enforced the agreement.
Mallen v. Mallen (2005). The husband's income wasn't listed either, but his financial statement showed his wealth and his business, and the wife knew from four years of living together that he earned a large income. The court found no important fact was hidden and enforced the agreement. Three justices disagreed, saying his income should have been disclosed.

The difference from the cases above: in Dove and Mallen the other spouse could see the overall financial picture. In Corbett and Dodson, they couldn't.

A large wealth gap isn't unfair by itself

Adams v. Adams (2004). The husband had about $4.5 million and the wife about $30,000. The agreement gave her $10,000 for each year of marriage, up to $100,000. Both had been married before, the assets were disclosed, and she had a chance to get her own legal advice. The court enforced it and said the gap "does not in and of itself render the agreement unconscionable".
Mallen v. Mallen (2005). The wife's net worth was about $10,000 and the husband's at least $8.5 million when they signed. The court said an agreement isn't unconscionable just because it keeps an existing difference in wealth, and that growth in his wealth during an 18-year marriage was foreseeable, not an unfair change.

Pressure before the wedding

Saying "I won't marry you unless you sign" was not duress in Mallen, where the wife also negotiated changes before she signed. In Alexander, the trial judge listed duress as one reason, but the Supreme Court decided the case on the hidden account alone, and one justice wrote separately that the same kind of statement isn't enough for duress.^{5, 7}

Timing still shows up in the facts courts weigh: agreements signed the night before, three days before, or four days before the wedding appear throughout these cases.^{1, 2, 7}

Thrown out: too few witnesses

Chubbuck v. Lake (2006). The agreement was signed only by the couple and a notary, without the two witnesses the law requires, so the trial court found it unenforceable. The judge then let both spouses testify about what it said anyway. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial: once an agreement is found void, its terms shouldn't be considered at all.
Sullivan v. Sullivan (2009). Only one person witnessed the agreement, signing twice. The court held it unenforceable for lacking two witnesses.

Today every prenup must be witnessed by at least two people, one of them a notary public.¹⁰

Unclear wording

Newman v. Newman (2012). The couple added a handwritten note to a 20-page agreement saying it had "certain ambiguities" they would fix within 30 days. The husband argued it was only an agreement to agree. The court disagreed: nothing showed the agreement was incomplete, and it enforced it.
Eversbusch v. Eversbusch (2013). A wife wrote a six-page letter agreement during the marriage. The court enforced its property division but not its alimony formula, because terms like "total annual income" were never defined. Alimony terms can't be "incomplete, vague, uncertain, or indefinite".

What these cases have in common

Each spouse could see the other's full financial picture, with values, before signing.
Anything the agreement says is attached is actually attached.
Each spouse had a real chance to read it and get their own legal advice.
At least two witnesses signed, one of them a notary.
The money terms are clear enough for a judge to apply.

Agreements signed during the marriage are judged in a similar way. See the postnuptial agreements guide.

Questions you might ask a lawyer

Did our financial disclosure include values, not just a list of assets?
Is everything the agreement refers to actually attached?
Were there two witnesses, one of them a notary?
Are the alimony or payment terms clear enough to apply years from now?

Common questions

What was the first Georgia case to allow prenups that plan for divorce?

Scherer v. Scherer, decided by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1982. It held that these agreements aren't automatically void and set out the three-part test courts still use.

Why do prenups get thrown out in Georgia?

Most often because important finances weren't fully and fairly shared before signing, such as income, an account or the value of a business. Missing witnesses is another reason.^{2, 3, 6}

Is a prenup unfair if one spouse is much richer?

Not by itself. Georgia's Supreme Court enforced agreements that kept a large wealth gap when finances were disclosed and the agreement was signed knowingly.^{4, 5}

Is it duress to say there's no wedding without a prenup?

In Mallen v. Mallen, the court said conditioning the wedding on signing wasn't duress.

Next guidePostnuptial agreements in GeorgiaHow Georgia courts treat postnuptial agreements, signed after the wedding: the questions judges ask, why financial disclosure still matters, what happened in real Georgia Supreme Court cases, and what a court decides no matter what the agreement says.

Sources

Laws and court rules change. If something here looks out of date, email help@divorce.city.