If my parents' separation agreement released claims against each other's estates, can a court override it?

Courts generally give significant weight to a validly signed separation agreement in which each spouse released their right to claim against the other's estate — that certainty is one of the main reasons people sign these agreements in the first place. But a release like this isn't automatically the final word. Part V of the SLRA gives courts discretion to still consider a dependant support claim even where a release exists, so a properly executed release makes a claim harder to bring, not impossible.

How much weight a court gives the release depends heavily on how it was negotiated — whether each spouse had independent legal advice, made full financial disclosure to the other, and clearly understood what they were giving up. A release signed with full disclosure and independent advice is much harder to challenge than one signed quickly, without a lawyer, or without a clear financial picture. Because so much turns on these specifics, this isn't something to guess about — getting the actual agreement and the circumstances around its signing reviewed by a lawyer is the only reliable way to know whether it's likely to hold up or be open to challenge.