In Duval v. Duval (September 23, 2022), the Massachusetts Appeals Court vacated the Probate and Family Court’s decision in a modification action to consider Father’s unallocated support obligation as alimony only and remanded. The parties had entered into a separation...
In many cases, a parcel of real estate will need to be valued for purposes of a divorce. This almost always occurs when one spouse wants to retain the marital home or another piece of land. The question then becomes, what value is going to be established for the house...
Due to COVID-19, the Massachusetts court system has relied heavily on online video conferencing platforms, like Zoom. A recent decision by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), Adoption of Patty (decided May 9, 2022), overturned a trial court’s termination of a mother’s...
Pursuant to the 2018 Child Support Guidelines, "[i]f a parent receives social security benefits or SSDI benefits and the children of the parties receive a dependency benefit derived from that parent's benefit, the amount of the dependency benefit shall be added to the...
In new decision, De-Paz York v. York, the Appeals Court finds that the Probate and Family Court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to issue a divorce judgment. In that case, the parties last lived together in Colombia on March 30, 2017. The wife filed a...
In his open letter dated March 24, 2020, Chief Justice Casey indicated that it is important, during the current Covid-19 crisis and corresponding Stay-at-Home Advisory, for children to spend time with both of their parents. While this provided welcome clarity for...
In Massachusetts, the durational residency requirement for a plaintiff to file for divorce is one year G.L. c. 208, § 5 (meaning, one must be a Massachusetts resident for a year before Massachusetts has jurisdiction over their divorce), but until recently, appellate...
In Casey v. Sweeney, a recent decision of the Appeals Court of Massachusetts, the court declined to provide clarification on the meaning of a statutory provision that has puzzled commentators and practitioners since it came into effect on March 1st 2012. The provision...
In Massachusetts, a judge has broad discretion with respect to the equitable division of the marital estate and may consider both economic and noneconomic contributions to the marital estate. A prenuptial agreement can clarify the responsibility for debts incurred...
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently addressed this issue in Miles v. Beusch, Docket 17-P-1511 (Mass. App. Ct. January 24, 2019) (Memorandum and Order Pursuant to Rule 1:28). In that case, the former Husband appealed the trial court's decision to attribute...
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