If you and your spouse signed a prenup before you got married, and now you’re thinking about asking for a divorce, odds are that you’ve considered the terms of that prenup. You may be counting on them to protect your assets.

But is that prenuptial agreement actually going to stand? There are many reasons why a prenup can be invalid. Some of them may surprise you. For instance, if your spouse can show that they never read the agreement at all, then it may not stand in court.

Why wouldn’t they read it?

This can get complicated if your spouse told you that they read the prenup before and now it turns out that they didn’t. You’ll probably find yourself asking why. It could be as simple as the fact that they just neglected to do it before, but it could be related to other reasons why a prenuptial agreement won’t stand.

For instance, one of the biggest problems is when somebody proposes a prenup right before the wedding. There’s simply no time to read and consider the terms. Generally speaking, a prenup that has been drafted right before the wedding, even if it has been signed by both parties, isn’t going to stand.

Your spouse may have known that they didn’t have time to actually consider it, but they might have felt pressured to sign. As a result, they just signed it without reading it. You may not have known this at the time, but finding out about it during the divorce can really change the way that you approach the legal proceedings.

If this has happened to you, or if you’re worried that it will, make sure that you’re aware of all the legal options that you have. The more you learn, the better you can anticipate and deal with potential difficulties in your divorce.