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New Child Support Guidelines Issued

Changes to Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines Coming in October New guidelines will make substantial alterations to how Massachusetts courts calculate how much child support is owed, effective in October. After a decade of steadily decreasing child support requirements in Massachusetts, it seems that pressure by public advocacy groups has reversed this trend. The new guidelines, […]

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Massachusetts Grandparents, Know Your Rights Regarding Visitation and Custody of Your Grandchildren

When it comes to grandparents’ rights, Massachusetts laws can be tricky to navigate. However, grandparents do have financial, visitation, and custody rights under certain circumstances. To utilize such rights, legal assistance might be necessary to help you take action. Grandparents today are frequently faced with decisions about what is best for their grandchildren under challenging […]

Contemplating Your Estate Plan During Covid-19

Get Your Affairs in Order For most of us, coronavirus and the threat it poses has made us contemplate the status of our estate plans. As thousands of people in the Commonwealth have died of COVID-19 and its complications, many thousands more are ill, and many, many thousands more face unemployment and financial hardship. There […]

Substance abuse problem in the marriage

Posted by Attorney Bruce Watson About one-half of the men and women I defend against criminal charges have an alcohol or drug problem. Perhaps one-quarter of the women and men I represent in divorce proceedings have experienced a substance abuse problem in the marriage. While many people still think of this issue in terms of […]

Not all funds affect child support

Posted by Attorney Bruce Watson In Massachusetts, child support is typically based on a spouse’s income…but not all the money that a spouse happens to receive counts as “income.” For instance, an ex-wife owned 20 percent of a family corporation. When she and her husband divorced, she got custody of their three children and the […]

Adultery and Divorce Law in Massachusetts

Posted by Attorney Bruce Watson Adultery is still a criminal offense in Massachusetts, although prosecution of such a crime is exceedingly rare, and its use in divorce proceedings has fallen into disfavor.  Nevertheless, an allegation of adultery may affect child custodial arrangements and is a development in a divorce proceeding to be taken seriously. Massachusetts […]

Snooping on your spouse may be illegal and get you arrested

More and more spouses who are thinking about divorce, or who are going through the divorce process, are snooping on the other spouse. They’re looking for evidence of adultery, hidden assets, bad parenting, or other information that might give them a leg up in a divorce or custody proceeding. “Snooping” covers a wide range of […]

Divorce Rate for Boston Metrosouth and Boston Metrowest

The Boston metro-west part of Middlesex County, and all of Norfolk County, and the suburban neighborhoods of Boston, and the northern cities and towns of Plymouth County form the Metro-south and Metro-west suburban regions of Boston. These cities, towns and neighborhoods contain about 1.7 million people. The so-called “crude” divorce rate, which looks at the […]