You and your spouse have chosen to mediate your divorce because you wish to avoid the expense, acrimony, and publicity of litigation. You may hire an attorney-mediator who can assist your negotiation, educate you about the law, and draft your separation agreement in a streamlined process. Or you...
Collaborative Mediation. Is That A Thing?
The following article proposes an intriguing hybrid of collaborative law and mediation: http://www.divorcemediationtexas.com/blogs/collaborative-mediation-new-divorce-solution. Thoughts, anyone?
Prenuptial Pain And How Mediation Or Collaborative Law Can Help
There are many reasons parties might choose to enter prenuptial agreements, for example: to protect assets for children from a previous marriage; prevent a family-owned business from being dissolved; keep separate family estates, inheritances, trusts or funds which may be held in name only; or to shield assets where one spouse has...
Moving Towards A Better Way
Observations on transforming a litigation-based family law practice to one focused on alternative dispute resolution.
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As an advocate and litigator, although I have always enjoyed spirited legal argument, I have been fundamentally troubled by negative aspects of civil and family law litigation that sometimes can occur:...
Everything Is Income
In case the Child Support Guidelines have not yet made this fact clear enough, everything, everything, everything a party earns may be considered income for purposes of child support calculation. In Hoegen v. Hoegen, 89 Mass. App. Ct. 6 (2016), the Appeals Court reversed a Probate Court decision that a father was not obligated...
Trust Issues
Trusts are a source of much uncertainty in division of marital assets, calling for caution and compromise by divorcing parties. Nowhere is that principle better illustrated than in the case of Pfannenstiehl v. Pfannenstiehl, a case initially decided by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, 88 Mass. App. Ct. 121 (2015), and recently overturned by...
Drop Off The Key, Lee
Why it's hard to force a soon-to-be ex-spouse to leave the marital home -- and why that spouse should leave anyway.
You are getting divorced. You and your spouse are living in marital misery, hiding from each other in your own home, barely speaking, or only engaging in...
Why You Still Need A Lawyer When You Mediate Your Divorce
Having independent counsel will help you be sure that your agreement is fair, complete, and enforceable.
You and your spouse/ex-spouse have made the rational decision to mediate your divorce or modification to avoid the cost, stress, loss of privacy, and uncertainty of litigation. You think you agree on the major...
