Divorce can be challenging. Even if both parties are on board, divorce is a significant life shift, and with that comes stress, uncertainty, and change. As your needs, priorities, and goals take on a new course, one thing you don’t want to overlook is your estate plan. Estate plans typically contain important documents regarding your […]
More than a Matter of Time: Reasons You Can Annul Your Marriage in Massachusetts
Many people imagine that a marriage of short duration, say a year or less, is automatically eligible for an annulment. However, annulments are granted in only very specific circumstances, circumstances that have no relation to the length of the marriage. A marriage which a Massachusetts family court will annul is one that is either void […]
Understanding the Statute to Modify Child Custody and Parenting Time
There are circumstances in life that are out of our control—the loss of a job, for example, or an unexpected illness that can change life significantly. In these situations, it’s not uncommon for one or both parents to seek modifications to child custody or parenting time agreements to fit their evolving needs. Child custody judgments […]
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, […]
Signs it Might Be Time to Get a Divorce
The decision to divorce isn’t always cut and dry. While, in some cases, divorce is the best course of action, it remains a difficult decision. Only you know what is in your heart and the best way forward for you and your family. If you’re considering divorce, the following signs may help make your decision […]
Tracking Child Support Payments
Under Massachusetts law, both parents have a duty to support their child. Typically, following a separation or divorce, only one parent is considered the custodial parent. This is the parent who lives with and has primary care of the child. The support provided by the custodial parent is offered in the time and care given […]
Out of State Child Support Modification
Child Support and Out-of-State Issues Whether one parent is living just over the Massachusetts border in New Hampshire but still commutes to Boston every day, or whether the one parent is living on the West Coast while the children live with the other on the South Shore, issues of state jurisdiction may come into play […]
Divorce When Only One Partner Lives in Massachusetts
Many married couples live separately, even across state lines, for reasons which have nothing to do with the health of their marriage. However, when living across state lines from each other, couples may find their marriage at a crossroads and begin considering divorce. Perhaps distance has created serious problem in the relationship or laid bare […]
Get the Facts About Parental Rights, Paternity Testing, and Child Support
As far as the Massachusetts courts are concerned, both mothers and fathers have legal rights and obligations when it comes to children. However, a child born to unmarried parents doesn’t automatically have a legal father. The mother is given sole legal and physical custody until paternity is established. For married couples, the husband is presumed […]
When Your Co-Parent Is an Essential Worker
Custody and COVID-19 These are difficult times for everyone, but for divorced and blended families there are particular and unique challenges. Many of these challenges center around custody. In a time when travel is discouraged and transportation—by plane, train, or public transit—is limited and fraught with worry, moving children between households, especially across great distances, […]