Many couples arrive with an agreement already drafted, sometimes found online, and discover that the court will not approve it as it stands. An agreement on the consequences of divorce is not an ordinary private contract: it takes effect only once ratified by the court, which checks three things.
First, that the agreement was concluded freely and after due consideration. The court hears the spouses, separately if necessary, and satisfies itself that neither signed under pressure or without understanding what they were committing to. An agreement signed on the evening of an argument stands little chance.
Second, that the agreement is clear and complete. Every ancillary effect must be settled: parental responsibility, custody, contact, maintenance for the child and the spouse, division of matrimonial property, and the split of occupational pension assets. A point left open sends the parties back to fresh proceedings a few years later.
Third, that the agreement is not manifestly inequitable. The court does not impose its own allocation, but it will refuse to ratify an agreement that leaves one spouse below their subsistence minimum while the other keeps most of the resources. On child maintenance its scrutiny is stricter still: the child did not sign the agreement.
The split of occupational pension assets deserves particular attention. It is in principle equal for the duration of the marriage, and a waiver is admissible only if adequate old-age and invalidity provision remains assured. This is the point most often mishandled in agreements drafted without a lawyer.
A properly prepared agreement takes two or three sessions and costs a fraction of a contested divorce. Above all, it leaves both spouses in control of the outcome, which no judgment does.