How many times have lawyers heard their clients say, “A friend of a friend told me that in his divorce…” or “My neighbor’s cousin said that she got more in child support because…” I’ve also heard clients say numerous times, “I saw this article online that says that I need to get [such and such] as part of my divorce settlement.” Divorce is becoming more and more common and so chances are that at a minimum a client will have a friend who knows someone who is divorced, but now

This article is an overview of the divorce process in contested divorces, that is, where the parties have not already entered into an agreement and are not filing a joint petition for divorce. Keep in mind that each case and judge is unique and so a particular case may or may not follow this general roadmap. This article is not intended to cover every possible scenario which may arise during the course of a divorce. The first step is filing the complaint for divorce. Almost a

Assisted and alternative reproduction is an area of family law that can be extremely complicated and which involves complex relationships between all of those involved. This area of the law can apply to everyone: both gay and straight couples, either unmarried or married, and even to single people. As part of the assisted or alternative reproduction process, many parties may potentially be involved in one form or another, such as the egg donor, sperm donor, surrogate, gestati

The financial statement is perhaps the most important document a party files with the court in a family law case. A financial statement must be filed with the court where support (either child support and/or alimony) or money is an issue in the case. The purpose of the financial statement is to provide the court and the other party with detailed information regarding your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Despite its importance, parties often do not even know that th

It’s the million dollar question that just about every divorce client asks during the initial conference: how long will it be until I am divorced? The answer: it depends. Fundamentally, the answer to that question depends on whether or not the parties file a joint petition for divorce. By statute, parties are permitted to file a joint petition for divorce.[1] This joint petition may alternatively be known as a “1A” (named for the section of the statute) or uncontested petitio

Limited Assistance Representation (or LAR, for short) is a relatively new concept in Massachusetts Probate and Family Courts, having been permitted in all divisions of the Probate and Family court since May 1, 2009. Limited Assistance Representation permits an attorney to represent a client during part of the client’s case, without necessarily representing the client throughout the client’s entire case. This form of representation can be extremely beneficial to a client who m