Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog

How a Wife’s Acceptance of Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars from a Trust Closed Off Her Ability to Challenge a Marital Property Agreement

February 7, 2025 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Any contractual agreement you sign with your sign that governs the distribution of assets — whether it is a prenuptial agreement, a postnuptial agreement, a marital property agreement, or a divorce settlement agreement — deserves your utmost attention. Because of the high stakes involved, it also calls for advice and counsel from an experienced Maryland marital agreement lawyer.

One of the essential aspects of any marital agreement is understanding your rights and obligations, including recognizing what actions may act as a waiver of legal rights you would otherwise have had.

A Montgomery County couple’s marital property agreement dispute clearly illustrates this concept.

Dealing With an Uncooperative Spouse When Litigating a Maryland Divorce

January 24, 2025 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Divorce is often an extremely painful time. Different individuals respond to the trauma of divorce in various ways — some more constructive than others. One way of responding to your spouse’s decision to end your marriage that is never helpful is to ignore it (or ignore aspects of the legal case that require you to respond.) Failing to participate in your divorce case can only serve to harm you, including in terms of substantial economic losses. Rather than hiding away from your divorce and your divorce case, seek out an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer instead.

A recent divorce case in Annapolis offers many pointers about what not to do when your spouse initiates divorce proceedings.

The divorce involved a young couple with one child. The husband was in the Navy, while the wife worked as a proposal analyst for a software company. During the litigation, the wife did not comply with multiple “reasonable discovery requests” the husband made. The wife “simply ignored them and/or didn’t respond, and/or didn’t update any discovery responses she did make,” according to the trial court.

Last-Minute Prenuptial Agreements and the Law of Coercion and Duress in Maryland

January 10, 2025 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Ideally, a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is something the spouses craft collaboratively, with both individuals having a clear understanding of the document’s terms, a meaningful opportunity to consult legal counsel, and plenty of time to make an informed decision about whether or not to sign. Sometimes, though, that does not happen. When it doesn’t, the result may be an invalid and unenforceable agreement. Whether you are considering creating (or signing) a prenuptial/postnuptial agreement or need to pursue invalidating one, having a knowledgeable Maryland family law attorney on your side can be vital to your success.

A celebrity divorce — and questions around the enforceability of the couple’s prenup — were in the news last year.

Early last year, Jeannie Mai, a TV host whose credits included the 2022 and 2023 Miss Universe pageants, sought to set aside the prenuptial agreement she and her husband, rap star Jeezy, had signed. Mai argued in court papers that the contract was invalid because “she signed the prenup paperwork only five days before [the] wedding and could not thoroughly examine” the document.

Ambiguities in Marital Settlement Agreements in Maryland

December 23, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

A collaborative divorce can provide many benefits to the spouses, including less expense and less animosity. To make this type of divorce process work its best, you must ensure you have an agreement clearly written and free from any ambiguities. An experienced Maryland divorce lawyer can be instrumental as you negotiate, draft, and execute your divorce agreement.

Ambiguity in an agreement can create substantial problems, such as creating disagreements that send the case back to court.

The divorce case of D.D. and J.D. from Baltimore is a strong example. In 2022, the spouses worked out an agreement dividing all their assets except their marital residence. The spouses placed their asset division terms in a Consent Agreement that stated the wife “shall be entitled to fifty percent (50%) of the marital share portion of Husband’s [Police] Pension, ‘if, as and when’ pension payments are distributed to him.”

Maryland’s Law of Contempt of Court… as Applied in a Contentious Caroline County Divorce

December 10, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Ideally, all divorces would proceed maturely, respectfully, and collaboratively for the benefit of both spouses (and their children, if any.) Reality tells us that divorces often fall short of this ideal. Divorces bring out strong emotions, and intense emotions sometimes lead spouses to engage in misconduct. When your spouse has done so, one option may be to pursue a finding of contempt of court. Because Maryland law recognizes many types of contempt, it is wise to consult an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer to advise you about pursuing a contempt case.

Earlier this month, the Appellate Court again waded into the contentious divorce of G.S. and T.S. from Caroline County, a dispute that raised many contempt-related issues.

In 2022, the couple worked out a divorce settlement agreement that they placed “on the record” in court during the second day of their divorce trial. The agreement covered terms related to child custody and parenting time and also directed the husband to pay the wife a monetary award of $100,000.

Prenuptial Agreement, Postnuptial Agreements, and the Divorce of a Maryland Native Turned Reality TV Star

November 29, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

One does not necessarily expect to unearth beneficial knowledge about the law from the latest celebrity gossip news regarding “reality” television stars. Perhaps there really is a time for everything, as the latest reports about the divorce involving one “Real Housewives” star show offer some valuable clues about what – and what not – to do as you navigate the process of prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements, and divorce. One thing that is always a good idea is to contact a knowledgeable Maryland divorce lawyer whenever you have questions.

Ashley Darby, a native of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and one of the featured spouses on “Real Housewives of the Potomac,” filed for divorce from her husband, Michael Darby, earlier this month, according to TMZ. The couple separated in April 2022. The husband told TMZ that the spouses had worked out a mutually agreeable marital settlement agreement, guided in part by the couple’s prenuptial agreement.

According to other sources, including Yahoo! Entertainment News, the couple had multiple agreements.

The Deadlines You Face if You Want to Challenge Your Maryland Divorce Judgment

November 8, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Quality legal representation can help your divorce in many ways. The right legal team can be instrumental in requesting and amassing the evidence you need and crafting that proof into a compelling case for the relief you seek. One additional big way a skilled attorney can help is by navigating the rules of procedure. These rules may seem obtuse, opaque, or beyond comprehension to a layperson, but their requirements nevertheless are mandatory and noncompliance can have catastrophic consequences for your case. A skilled Maryland divorce lawyer, however, will be steeped in these requirements and know how to carry your matter forward without being tripped up by the rules.

A divorce litigation matter from Baltimore County shows how badly your case can go wrong if you fail to do what the rules demand.

The wife, a Baltimore-area realtor and accountant, hired an attorney who filed a petition for divorce on her behalf. The husband wisely retained counsel, who filed an answer. Aided by their attorneys, the couple worked out a consent agreement. The agreement stated that the wife got 30% of the husband’s pension.

Dealing With Cryptocurrency and Other Digital Assets in a Maryland Divorce

October 31, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Earlier this month, news sources reported that cryptocurrency is now an asset subject to distribution in divorce… in South Korea. While your divorce likely won’t be adjudicated using the laws of South Korea, this new development half a world away is still a significant reminder that digital assets like crypto are an ever-increasing portion of married couples’ asset portfolios and, in Maryland, they are (and have been for several years) subject to equitable distribution in a divorce in this state. If you have questions about your digital assets and equitable distribution, be sure to seek out answers you can rely on by talking to an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer.

In Maryland, we have the Marital Property Act. That statute says that all marital property is subject to equitable distribution. That includes digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and other forms of crypto, but these assets present some unique challenges in a divorce. Two of the biggest are: finding it and valuing it.

Let’s tackle the latter first. Valuing crypto is inherently complicated because crypto’s value is much more volatile than other assets. Take Bitcoin, for example, which went from 62,800 to below 32,000 to 52,700 to 42,100 to 67,000… in a span of just seven months in 2021. This rapid and radical shifting can make pinpointing an accurate value of your (or your spouse’s) crypto assets particularly problematic.

The State of Same-Sex Marriage in Maryland in 2024… and the Challenges of Same-Sex Divorce

October 18, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

This past June, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, celebrated its ninth anniversary. As same-sex marriage has been legal for anywhere from roughly two decades (Massachusetts) to just shy of one decade (nationwide,) research has begun showing some important trends related to same-sex couples, marriage, and divorce. Divorce presents unique challenges to same-sex couples so, if you have made the difficult decision to divorce, having a skilled Maryland divorce lawyer by your side can be essential to getting a fair and appropriate outcome.

According to Maryland Matters, same-sex marriage experienced a massive uptick in the years after the 2015 Supreme Court ruling. Based on estimates from the Census Bureau, Maryland had “about 4,400 same-sex married couples… in 2012, the year before the state made it legal.” By 2015, that number had more than doubled to 10,388. After 2015, the number of married gay and lesbian couples has risen to approximately 16,500.

As the years have passed, researchers have studied the patterns of same-sex marriage and divorce. Researchers at UCLA, as well as their counterparts in Denmark, both found that the rate of same-sex divorce is lower than the rate among their “straight” counterparts.

The Importance of QDROs in Maryland Divorces that Include Pensions or Retirement Accounts

September 30, 2024 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Family law can involve many acronyms, ranging from those related to domestic violence (DVPO) to child support (CCPA.) Even if your divorce involves no children and no violence, there is an acronym that may be important to you: QDRO. QDRO stands for “qualified domestic relations order,” and is a court mechanism by which someone who is not the holder of a pension or retirement account may receive some or all of those funds. When one or both spouses in a divorce have substantial pension/retirement assets, a QDRO can play an integral role in ensuring that the divorce’s property division is fair. For information about how a QDRO might factor into your divorce case, get reliable answers by speaking to an experienced Maryland divorce lawyer.

A QDRO can come into existence in multiple ways. In one instance, the spouses are unable to agree and the judge decides that a non-account-holding spouse is entitled to some or all of the account’s proceeds. The other occurs when the spouses do agree… and their settlement agreement calls for the non-account-holding spouse to get a portion (or all) of an account.

A recent divorce case from Montgomery County is an example of the latter scenario. The spouses worked out a marital settlement agreement (MSA) in which the husband agreed to provide the wife with a fraction of his Federal Employee Retirement System Pension and Thrift Savings Plan. In addition, he agreed to ensure that the required court orders (directing the distribution) were issued.