Divorce and Family Law Blog
Written by an experienced Divorce and Family Law Attorney with offices in Boston | Andover | Newburyport | Newton
Co-Parents Paying for College Expenses
Planning for college expenses is hard enough, but it gets even more challenging for those who co-parent. Among other expenses related to the maintenance and welfare of a child during a divorce or child support proceeding, the court sometimes orders a party to pay...
Grandparents Seeking Custody or Visitation
Forget the sappy Hallmark ads depicting grandparental bliss. Forget the press about the important relationship forged between grandparents and grandchildren. When it comes to visitation, grandparents using the courts to assert their rights to see their grandkids face...
Child Custody and Religious Upbringing
As the divorce rate of interfaith couples increases, judges are forced to address the issue of “spiritual custody". This means determining custody disagreements regarding religious upbringing. Often, religion is something a person holds near and dear, especially...
Property Attachment and Divorce
A property attachment is a possibility during divorce: either spouse under Massachusetts divorce laws may attach the other spouse’s real and personal property to ensure suitable support for the attaching spouse and children in his/her care and custody[1]. For...
What is the Role of a Parenting Coordinator?
When divorced parents in Massachusetts have issues related to decisions involving their children, the parents can employ the use of a parenting coordinator.[1] A parenting coordinator is a neutral court-appointed party who helps divorced parents to resolve...
How Retirement Impacts Alimony
Sally and Bob's marriage lasted nearly thirty years. During most of this time Sally worked as a doctor while Bob took care of the couple’s children. In 2002, they divorced, and the court ordered Sally to provide $500 per week to Bob. Sally has now reached “full...
Prenuptial Agreements and Fairness
In Massachusetts family law in general, the importance of equity and fairness is of utmost concern. The court will review prenuptial agreements to ensure fairness and reasonableness. It will also consider whether enforcement conflicts with countervailing equities. The...
Open Adoption Agreements
In a recent case, the Massachusetts Appeals Court discussed open adoption agreements. Specifically, it looked at the enforcement of clauses in agreements at the sole discretion of the adoptive parents. Background: In the case at hand, the adoptive parents adopted two...
Adultery as Grounds for Divorce
Adultery is one of the most distressing and devastating challenges to any marriage. Although some marriages survive the stressful impact of one spouse’s unfaithfulness, others simply cannot. Sometimes a party files for divorce because of a spouse's infidelity. In that...
2017 Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines
As we discussed in a previous post, the 2017 Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines, effective September 15, 2017, made significant changes from the 2013 Guidelines in how parenting time affects a child support order, how health/vision/dental insurance is accounted...