Claude Prompt: Marital Settlement Agreement Term Review and Redline List
Reviews a proposed settlement agreement or term sheet against your client's goals and the financial documents: missing, ambiguous and inconsistent terms, figures that do not reconcile, obligations with no enforcement mechanism, and a redline list of clarifications.
The Prompt
Variables (8)
| Variable | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| {{client_name}} | Client Name | Priya Nair |
| {{client_role}} | Client Role | Petitioner |
| {{current_date}} | Today's Date | 2026-10-02 |
| {{goals}} | Client Goals and Limits | Keep the house. Primary residence for the children. Spousal support for at least 5 years (client goal). Not willing to give up her retirement account. |
| {{agreement}} | Agreement or Term Sheet | 3. Wife receives the marital home. 4. Husband pays $2,100 per month in support. 6. Retirement accounts are divided equally. 7. Wife pays the second mortgage. |
| {{documents}} | Financial Documents | Mortgage statement (first): $212,400. Second mortgage statement: $48,900. 401(k) statement, husband: $186,300. IRA statement, wife: $64,000. Husband pay stub: $7,850 gross per month. |
| {{authority}} | Pasted Governing Text | None pasted. |
| {{notes}} | Attorney Notes | Our other-side contact says the support number is standard. Do not mention the client's plan to relocate. |
Expected Output
A reasoning pass inside analysis tags, then Part 1, attorney-only: conflicts, clause register, goals-to-terms map, missing and ambiguous terms, internal inconsistencies, arithmetic reconciliation, enforcement and security gaps, questions for a tax or retirement specialist, unsupported statements declined, declined requests, missing information. Part 2: a redline list of proposed clarifications. Ends with a Verification list.
Usage Notes
Use before advising your client on a proposed agreement or term sheet. Paste the agreement text, the client's goals and the financial documents in the tagged fields. Tax and retirement-division points come back as questions for a specialist, not as statements of what any rule requires. Watch for clauses the model calls missing: it may only call a term missing against your client's goals or a category the agreement or the documents themselves raise. Read the document part line by line before it leaves the office. Not legal advice. The attorney remains responsible for verifying every fact, figure and authority before use.
Double-check before use
- Test every proposed clarification against your client's goals. In testing, some proposals added an obligation or an option that ran against the client.
These are the places where this prompt was seen to slip when tested on sample cases with a small AI model.
Legal Sources Referenced
- 26 U.S.C. § 1041 (no gain or loss recognized on a transfer of property between spouses or incident to divorce, as the section is worded)
- 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(3) (qualified domestic relations orders and the exception to the pension plan anti-assignment rule)
Originally featured in: Prompt Engineering for Lawyers: The Complete 2026 Guide
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