The Family Mediation Blog
The 2020-2021 Massachusetts Trial Court Child Support Guidelines Task Force was convened in 2020 and requested the submission of comments by December 15, 2020 to assist them in updating the guidelines as required every four years. MCFM, and other organizations and individuals, submitted comments and recently the Task Force announced their changes with the new 2021 Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines. Click here to read MCFM's comments.
Following is a blog post reprinted with permission from Skylark Law & Mediation, PC that summarizes all the changes:
New Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines (2021): Big Changes, Little Changes, Typos & some Unexpected Results
Every four years, per federal mandate, the Massachusetts…
Read more ...Massachusetts Probate & Family Court Suspends Requirement for Parenting Education Classes
On July 8, 2021 Chief Justice John Casey of the MA Probate and Family Courts announced a suspension to the requirement for divorcing parents to complete the mandatory parent education program specified in the court’s Standing Order 2-16, Parent Education Program Attendance, issued in 2016.
The announcement surprised many MA divorce lawyers and mediators. Besides our weekly reminders to some clients to finish the program prior to their case concluding, feedback about the program from our clients – which went remote like most everything else during the coronavirus pandemic – was mostly positive.
When I first heard this news, I expected some form of replacement program would also be announced. The news was an abrupt and significant change to a…
Read more ...Hiring a Mediator for Your Coronavirus Divorce
eFiling Has Arrived for 1A Joint Petition Divorces in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Probate and Family Court announced this week that its eFiling system can now be used to file 1A divorces. eFiling is currently available in all counties in the Probate & Family Court. Pro se mediation clients as well as attorneys representing mediating clients can use the system. There is a $22 case fee plus processing fees for eChecks and credit cards used to pay the court filing fee. Indigent clients can seek to waive the fees. Documents need to be uploaded individually in PDF formats. eFiling may be appropriate for some clients and not others. For more information, see https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-efiling-in-the-trial-court.
Photo from …
Read more ...Remote Mediation: a Viable Alternative During the COVID-19 Crisis
by Justin L. Kelsey, Vice President of MCFM
If you have a court hearing scheduled in the next few weeks, most likely you've been told it's postponed. While some hearings will be scheduled telephonically and by video conference, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely causing significant delays in obtaining a hearing and an order or judgment. This is understandable as the court and the bar figure out how to adjust to this crisis. (For updates on the Massachusetts court's current status check here.) Regardless of how understandable these delays are, though, the experience for individuals going through conflict must be frustrating, disappointing, and in some cases devastating.
Now is the time to consider your alternatives to court.
… Read more ...First Things First: The No-Nup Prenup
by Vicki L. Shemin, J.D., LICSW, ACSW
Remember the good ol’ days when two people met, fell in love, and got married? Nowadays, not so fast. Increasingly, couples are rehearsing the relationship before deciding whether to plan a rehearsal dinner. As marriage rates have fallen, the number of cohabiting relationships has continued to climb sharply.
As reported by the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans living with an unmarried partner reached about 18 million in 2016, up 900% over the last 50 years. To put a finer point on it, that equates to some 7.8 million couples living together without putting a ring on it - - 85% of whom will break-up by the end of 10 years. Equally compelling is the Centers for Disease Control’s finding that 20% of first-time cohabitating women became pregnant and had a baby within the first year of living with their boyfriends.
At a…
Read more ...5 Reasons to Mediate Probate or Estate Situations
Co-Parenting for Dummies… and Smarties, too!
A GUIDE TO CO-PARENT COMMUNICATIONS
While it isn’t rocket science, it can be surprisingly difficult to communicate with the person you used to be married to. Old habits die hard and if you and s/he had a hard time listening to, not criticizing, or understanding each other before, chances are good that after divorce communications will also be a challenge. Add to this the residual feelings you might have about your marriage and what went wrong, coupled with the intensity of dealing with child related issues through and after divorce, managing all of the scheduling back and forth….well, you get the point----it just isn’t easy!!
As a family and divorce mediator and collaborative divorce coach (and psychotherapist, too), I have been ‘in the trenches’ with hundreds of families, trying to sort this all out and help…
Read more ...…Read more ...
