A Georgia separation agreement can settle most of what spouses owe each other, but not everything they might want to put in it.
Support and Maintenance
OCGA 19-6-8 authorizes a spouse to “make an adequate provision for the support and maintenance of such spouse.” That is the core of most separation agreements, and the statute adds that “[s]uch an agreement shall be a bar to the right of the spouse to permanent alimony.”
Alimony and Property
Spouses can also settle alimony outright. In Brown v. Farkas, 195 Ga. 653 (1943), a wife suing for divorce and alimony instead took a security deed over her husband’s property securing $1,400 in monthly installments, “in full settlement” of all temporary and permanent alimony. The Georgia Supreme Court treated the contract as valid and enforceable.
Property can move between spouses as well. Under OCGA 19-3-64, a person may “at any time during the marriage, either indirectly through trustees or directly to his or her spouse, convey any property to which he or she has title, subject to the rights of prior purchasers or creditors without notice.”
That last clause matters. A transfer between spouses does not defeat someone who already had a claim on the property.
What You Cannot Lock Down
The limit is children. Spouses may write custody and support terms into a separation agreement, and those terms bind the two of them, but they do not bind the court. As the Georgia Supreme Court put it in Barbee v. Barbee, 201 Ga. 763 (1947), “when the welfare of children is concerned, the parents can not by contract so bind themselves as to foreclose the court from an inquiry as to what that welfare requires.”
Contact Us
This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!