Articles tagged: divorce
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
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 ...Wanted: Diverse Divorce Practitioners. Why Diversity is Good for All of Us
By Valerie Qian
Cultural competence and sensitivity to the needs of diverse clients are an essential part of being an effective and successful professional.
My father-in-law recently underwent surgery to remove a kidney stone. It happened at a big hospital in New York City which, I understand, has an excellent urology department. As a first-generation immigrant from Shanghai, my father-in-law speaks limited English. After the surgery, while he was still slightly groggy from the anesthesia, a surgical resident who spoke some Chinese told him, without an interpreter, that the surgery went well and that 90% of the stone had been removed. A week later, my husband found out from the surgeon who actually performed the surgery that the stone was still there in…
Read more ...“The Generous Prenup: How to Support Your Marriage and Avoid the Pitfalls”
by Laurie Israel
As some of you may know, I spent a good part of the past 3 years writing a book about prenups. Our mediation (and law) practices sometimes take interesting turns. I started out as a tax lawyer, and then morphed into a general practice lawyer, concentrating on family law and estate planning. I’ve been practicing for a little over 30 years.
About 10 years ago, after representing a number clients in prenup negotiations, I wrote an article called “Ten Things I Hate about Prenuptial Agreements” and posted it online. This was during the relative infancy of the World Wide Web. Because the article was written by a lawyer, and because it struck a chord with many people who had faced or were facing a prenup, it more or less went viral. People are still reading it today and contacting me.
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Read more ...Revoking the Irrevocable Trust in a Divorce - Or - Never Say Can't, Say Decant! - Part II*
Even with Pfannenstiehl behind us, the complex interplay of the irrevocable trust and divorce continues to vex practitioners. The topic du jour is decanting and divorce -- and the SJC just dove right in with Ferri v. Powell Ferri, 476 Mass. 651 (2017).
Before we go further, a quick primer. “Decanting” is the process of pouring assets from an irrevocable trust into a newly created trust. The big question at the heart of decanting and divorce: what if, during (or anticipating) a divorce, the trustee decanted the assets into a newly created trust that was, say, more divorce-proof than the original trust? But, before we examine that issue, what is the law about decanting generally? When can a trustee decant the assets in an…
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