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I wrote a post back in February about the youngest (at the time) divorcee in the world. She was only 10 years old.
It seems that she’s been beat by an 8-yr old divorcee in Saudi Arabia. She was recently granted a divorce from her 50-yr old husband who bought her hand in marriage for $13,000.
If that is not a human rights violation, I don’t know what is. And even those critics that points out that the husband wasn’t suppose to have sexual relations with his “wife” until she hit puberty, what are the chances that that actually happened behind closed doors. I doubt he didn’t rape her.
Starting May 1, 2009, the Probate and Family Court will adopt several new rules to the existing Rules of Domestic Relations.
Rule 4(d)(4) has been amended to require only one publication in the event of an alternative service summons (as oppose to 3 publications in the past)
Rule 56 has been amended to allow Summary Judgment in all cases except for those involving divorce, child custody and visitation, or criminal contempt
Rule 410 on disclosures has been amended by splitting the 410 disclosures into 2 prongs: The first prong requires automatic disclosure of pay stubs, tax returns and health insurance information within 45 days of service on an action for child support. The second prong requires a 410 notice to be served on opposing party before further disclosures are necessary.
New Rule 27C specifies the format for Summary Judgment in the Probate and Family Court
The text of the amended and new rules can be found here (pdf file): http://is.gd/uUJL
When multi-millionaire fund manager Brian Myerson negotiated his divorce, he gave cash and assets to his wife and just took shares in his company as his portion of the joint assets. Cute, right? Well, this is one risk that didn’t pay off for the edgy activist investor: his company’s shares subsequently plummeted 90%, leaving the ex-wife walking off with what basically amounts to 105% of the divorce assets.
Myerson appealed his case in court — and lost.
Here in Massachusetts, it’s no different. If you get a divorce in Massachusetts and during the course of negotiations you reach a settlement agreement on division of property, you cannot (except under very unusual circumstances) change the agreement after the divorce has been approved. There is a thing called a Complaint for Modification to modify parts of a divorce settlement, however, it is not for modifying property distribution. Modification actions are for modifying child support, custody/visitation and alimony.
So before you sign on the dotted line on that Separation Agreement, think long and hard because you cannot take back what you have given away.
Last month, I wrote two posts, almost back-to-back, in regards to fathers and parenting: A World Without Fathers and Husbands / Child Support and Deadbeat Dads. Looking back now, perhaps it was a mistake to post them so close to each other because I’ve received a huge response, both in the comments and offline, from the posts.
First, I want to apologize if I gave the impression that I was against fathers or men for any reason. I am not. I want to apologize if I gave the impression that I don’t believe in father’s rights. I do believe in it.
The post about the Moso’s way of life was simply an interesting case study that I wanted to share. I find it very fascinating when I observe an entirely different way to life and culture that is counter to our own. I don’t know if the Moso’s matriarchal society is better than ours or not. I didn’t write the post to pass judgment. I simply wanted to offer an alternative way to thinking about families and structure. Mainly the point is that family and its structure is not biological – it’s cultural.
The other post about deadbeat dads was in response to Massachusetts recently catching one of its high profile cases of child support. I don’t believe that posting about deadbeat dads means I’m against fathers. It means I’m against people who shirk their obligations to their children – whether they be men or women. It just so happens that statistically, dads are the ones that end up having to pay child support because the mom is the custodial parent. Why that is, is an issue for another post.
