A separation agreement is a contract between spouses who are living apart, settling questions of support and property between themselves rather than leaving them to a judge.
The Statute Behind It
OCGA 19-6-8 recognizes these agreements directly. In cases of voluntary separation, or where one spouse “is abandoned or driven off by the other spouse,” a party “by contract or other written agreement made with his spouse, may make an adequate provision for the support and maintenance of such spouse, consistent with the means of the party and the former circumstances of the spouse.”
Two things in that language are worth noticing. The provision has to be adequate, and adequacy is measured against the paying spouse’s means and the standard the other spouse had been living at. This is not simply whatever the parties write down.
It Is a Contract First
Georgia courts have long treated these as ordinary contracts. In Brown v. Farkas, 195 Ga. 653 (1943), the Georgia Supreme Court held that where “a husband and a wife were living in a state of separation and the wife was suing the husband for divorce and alimony, they could enter into a valid and enforceable contract settling the issue as to alimony.”
The Court went on to say that once such a contract exists, “its meaning and effect should be determined according to the usual rules for the construction of contracts.” So the words you sign are read the way any other agreement is read.
What It Is Not
A separation agreement is not a divorce, and signing one does not end your marriage. It also does not become a court order on its own. Whether it is folded into a divorce decree, and what changes when it is, is a separate question worth understanding before you sign.
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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!