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June 25, 2000 - New York Times
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Many couples visit lawyers for a pre-
nuptial agreement before the trip to the
alter, but even that foresight does not
mean a divorce will not be contentious. A
new Web site about divorce issues,
www.FamilyLawSoftware.com, sees an example of the
problem in a recent court case.
The case, Witowski v. Witowski, was
decided on May 5 in the District Court of
Appeal of Florida. The court found that
although the prenuptial agreement listed
the husband's pension as his property,
only what he owned before the marriage
and the appreciation on that part were his
alone. What he and his employer contrib-
uted during the marriage and the appreci-
ation on those contributions were marital
property, the court ruled, and the wife was
entitled to a share.
The lesson of the case, Family Law Software com-
mented, is that a prenuptial agreement
should be very clear on issues involving a
pension, a business or any other asset that
is created before the marriage and is
contributed to during the marriage.
Family Law Software.com was founded by Daniel
Caine and Wendell Smith, also the cre-
ators of Kiplinger's TaxCut Software, now
sold by H&R Block. The site offers free
help and advice in three categories of
divorce problems: legal issues like custo-
dy, alimony and property division; finan-
cial issues like calculating child support
or a pension's value; and lifestyle issues
like stress and anger. It also has links for
finding professional help in each state and
sells software that provides more detailed
assistances. JAN M. ROSEN
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