Frank McCourt has endured a lot during recent years. Once the proud owner of a thriving MLB franchise in California, he weathered a messy and extremely expensive divorce that was a factor in losing ownership of the team. The proceedings in that case showed that things could have gone much more smoothly for him.

When McCourt and his then wife bought the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004, they sought out legal counsel to protect their marital assets. The acquisition was heavily financed with debt, and the McCourts wanted to structure the deal in a way that would insulate them from financial liabilities and the risks of owning a baseball team.

The couple executed a marital property agreement stating that McCourt would own the Dodgers while his ex-wife would own the rest. But things went horribly awry. The McCourts signed copies of the agreement in Massachusetts and California, but the California copies appear to have provided the opposite of what the Massachusetts copies provided. This error proved costly in the McCourts' divorce, where the judge ruled that the couple had not reached an agreement on who owned the Dodgers. The judge therefore declared them co-owners.

McCourt's quandary brings into sharp relief the necessity of hiring precise and experienced legal counsel when executing post- and prenuptial agreements. Married couples may wish to execute such agreements for a variety of reasons. But whatever the motivation, the parties involved must be sure that the agreements conform to state law and that they are executed properly. Although most people do not have as much money at stake in divorce proceedings as the McCourts do, the issue of who gets what is of no less importance.

Source: ESPN.com, "A silver lining for Frank McCourt?" Lester Munson, Jan. 20, 2012.