Boston Divorce Lawyer – Boston Divorce & Family Law Attorney Blog

Welcome to my Boston metro and Massachusetts website about all things divorce related.

I help people through bad family situations and to rebuild their lives.  My hope with this site is to provide useful information to people who might be considering divorce in the Boston area and who needs help navigating the process.

There will be new posts underneath this one on a regular basis so check back often or subscribe via a RSS reader via the Subscribe link at the upper left hand corner.  You will also find useful free resources located on the navigation menu right above, along with a short bio about me and a list of questions I’ve answered for people who might be in a similar situation as yourself.  Also above, you will see a tab to calculate child support (coming soon).

Feel free to check out My Other Blogs where I talk about wills and trusts, prenuptial agreements and bankruptcy issues.  Lastly, you might want to know about the basics of divorce by exploring the selected posts on Divorce Basics on the right hand side.

If you have questions or issues that this site cannot answer, feel free to contact me, either at the number listed on the left or using the Contact Me tab above.

“But that’s what child support is for!”

I often hear this refrain, or its cousin “I understand that’s why s/he is paying child support”.  More often than not, it isn’t correct in the context.  People tend to think that a child support payment is intended to be the full contribution owed by a non-custodial parent, but that is rarely true.  So what is child support for?  And when are you liable for or entitled to additional monies?

Child Support is intended to insulate children from the economic impact a divorce can have on a child’s standard of living.  As the 2009 Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines states, Child Support is intended “to meet the child’s survival needs in the first instance, but to the extent either parent enjoys a higher standard of living, to entitle the child to enjoy that higher standard”.  Translated into lay terms, Child Support is meant to enable a child to have his or her basic needs met by items or services of the same quality he or she enjoyed during the marriage.  So what do these payments actually cover?  Food, clothing, shelter and basic sanitary/hygienic needs, like groceries, household cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and toothbrushes.

That being said, it’s time for what Child Support isn’t considered to include.  A monthly child support payment does not include monies owed for a person’s share of a child’s medical expenses.  It doesn’t include extraordinary basic expenses, like a share of tuition for a private school or college.  It doesn’t include fees associated with a child’s extracurricular activities.  While a parent may not be automatically liable for some portion of these costs, if the children were already creating or were expected to create these sorts of expenses at the time of their parents’ split, it’s difficult to argue that a parent shouldn’t continue to be responsible for some portion of this expense if she or he can afford to help.

This doesn’t mean that one parent may decide to take on some huge expense for a child and then force the other parent to contribute.  It likewise doesn’t mean that a parent can refuse to contribute to these expenses merely because he or she pays child support.  As with so many things in the area of family law, the law takes the commonsense approach: the involved parties need to look at the situation on the ground and decide what is in the child’s best interest.  Once that is determined, it is a question of the fairest way to accomplish that goal.

If you are currently having an issue with how you and your child’s other parent should apportion payment for certain expenses related to your child, it is worthwhile to consult with an attorney or mediator to assist you in coming to a solution that is fair and reasonable not only to you, but to your child.

As a divorce attorney, I would be lying if I said I didn’t notice the effect the Great Recession has had on my practice.  Like almost every business in any industry, I’ve noticed that fewer new clients are walking through the door.  But I wasn’t aware of the startling effect the Great Recession has had on divorce rates generally.  A recent piece by NPR’s All Things Considered informed me that  studies have shown that for every one percent increase in the unemployment rate, there is a one percent corresponding drop in the divorce rate.

This correlation isn’t due to families “doubling down” and growing closer in the face of adversity, but because couples who would otherwise part ways cannot afford to do so.  They cannot afford Court and attorney’s fees, nor do they have the cash on hand to properly divide their estate.  The end result is that people who have terminated their relationship are forced to remain married to one another, often under the same roof.  For some couples, however, this is an unbearable condition.    Throughout history, divorce rates and rates of domestic violence including homicide have shared a correlation: when divorce rates go up, domestic violence rates go down.  The end result of combining all of this information is a frightening picture: when the stressors that make divorce most likely are affecting millions of people, the same root cause places divorce out of reach.  These same stressors make domestic violence more likely, and the inability to obtain a divorce or remove oneself from the marital home make domestic violence more difficult to escape.

So what information can I provide those in such a situation?

•  You may qualify as an “indigent”, or a person who simply does not have the means to afford the fees associated with divorce.  If you do, filing fees and other court costs may be waived.  You may also be eligible for free legal advice or representation.

• Divorcing may require you to “liquidate” your assets, or to transfer property from one spouse to the other.  You should note that the IRS allows divorcing couples to transfer property between one another without incurring any taxes for such transfers.

• Lastly, you should note that if you and/or your children are being subjected to abuse by your spouse, there are both legal protections and other resources available to you.

There are certainly times when divorce is simply out of the question, but if you or someone you know is placing their physical, emotional, or mental health at risk due to the Great Recession, waiting for the economy to turn around should not be an option.

I am surprised at how often I hear both clients and attorneys tell me that in Massachusetts, when couples divorce, everything is split 50/50.  That is simply not true in Massachusetts.  Splitting everything 50/50 is more akin to community property states such as California.  Let’s break down that sentence and examine it:

Everything is split 50/50

The bolded text “everything” is correct and accurate.  In Massachusetts, when a couple divorces, everything is up for grabs.  Everything includes income and assets acquired during the marriage and also before the marriage.  Everything also includes gifts and inheritances during and before the marriage.

Everything is split 50/50

The bolded text “is split” is somewhat correct.  Since everything is up for grabs, everything is then up to be split.  It doesn’t mean that it will be split but simply that there is a possibility of it being split, depending on the circumstances of each couple.

Everything is split 50/50

The bolded text “50/50″ is absolutely false.  Massachusetts is an equitable division state.  It means that at the time of divorce, judges look to see how to split property equitably.  Equitable is a fancy term for “fair and reasonable.”  Fair and reasonable does not mean 50/50 or else our laws would simply say 50/50 or equally.  Equally is not the same as equitably.

Let’s take for example the case where a young couple in their 20′s gets married.  They started the marriage with next to nothing and they’re married for 9 years and had no children.  They then decide to divorce.  In that situation, it would be fair and reasonable to split their assets 50/50.

Now let’s take another example where a young couple in their 20′s gets married.  They started the marriage also with next to nothing and they’re married for 20 years and had 3 kids and the wife was a stay-at-home mom for 15 of those years.  In that situation, it would NOT be fair and reasonable to split their assets 50/50 because the wife sacraficed her professional advancement outside of the home to raise the couple’s kids which in turn enabled the husband to advance his career.  Now if she was to go back to the work force, she would be 15 years behind the curve professionally.  In this situation, a fair and reasonably (or equitable) distribution would be to give the wife more of the assets.