Jewish couples getting divorced face unique religious law issues with potential secular law ramifications. The ketuba, a central element of a Jewish wedding, is actually a legal document with financial implications. In order to dissolve a Jewish marriage, a Get (writ of divorce) is necessary. The Get requires the mutual participation of husband and wife, and in some cases the withholding of a Get has been threatened or utilized as a tool for negotiation leverage or simply out of spite. In the 1990s, the Rabbinical Council of America and Beth Din of America introduced a prenuptial agreement that is the single most effective tool to prevent improper Get recalcitrance.

In this CLE, an expert in Jewish law gives an in depth seminar on the real life implications of the ketuba document, and a practitioner who headed the committee that enacted the most recent improvements to the RCA/BDA prenuptial agreement provides an insider’s perspective on some of the complex legal issues relating to the document.