A client recently expressed her frustration over co-parenting with her ex-spouse. Managing summers, choosing extra-curricular activities and figuring out the best food to feed your children are just a few issues that can become an uphill battle for many parents in a divorce. For the lucky ones, co-parenting may come easily especially if the divorce…
Family Law
Protecting Your Credit in a Divorce
It is not uncommon for married couples to have joint accounts, including joint credit cards. However, once married couples are involved in a divorce, they must decide how to apportion the credit card debt. At that time, each spouse should be looking to protect their credit as much as possible. In Massachusetts, each spouse’s credit…
Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media: A Party’s Best Friend or Worst Nightmare in Family Law
Any matter pending in a family court is emotional and difficult for both parties. There are all types of cases that are heard by family courts: divorces, child custody and visitation, child support, paternity, and many more types of cases. Within these types of case, many issues are addressed, such as property division, the income…
Good Tips for Co-Parenting After a Divorce or Breakup
When a couple divorces (or in the case where they were never married, breaks up), it can be difficult to get along after the breakup or divorce. However, when there are children involved, the couple has no choice but to stay in touch and try to get along after the divorce or break up. As…
10 Things All Divorcing Parents Should Say To Their Kids
Divorce is undeniably a tumultuous experience for any couple, regardless of how amicable the dissolution may be. It is very easy to get caught up in our own roller coaster of emotions, as well as with the challenges of navigating the divorce process itself. It is important to remember there are innocent bystanders sitting on…
Grieving the gray divorce
As divorce rates among adults 50 and older continue to hit an all-time high, adult children of long-time married couples can find themselves shocked when their folks announce they’re splitting — and find themselves grieving with few places to turn. People, including the adult kids themselves, often assume “parental divorce won’t hurt an adult child,”…
How Social Networking Can Be Used Against People in Family Law Cases
Some of the most popular places on the Internet are “social networking sites.” It is easy for people to create their own pages and add personal information. Sharing your pages or passing interesting or humorous pages you come across to others can be great fun. It can also become a serious problem if your stories,…
Massachusetts Alimony Reform Act & Durational Limits
When the Massachusetts Alimony Reform Act went into effect in 2012, it provided for a payor spouse to file a Complaint for Modification to reduce or terminate his or her alimony obligation based upon durational limits, as further explained below. Rather than allowing spouses to file all at once in 2012, modification for only durational…
Postnuptial Agreements
Dear Clients and Friends, Properly executed pre-nuptial agreements have been enforceable for sometime in the state of Massachusetts. These agreements are entered into between the couple before they are married to protect assets each party had at the time of marriage. Here are Amaral & Associates, P.C., we prepare pre-nuptial agreements on a regular basis…
Understanding Types of Child Custody in Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, along with most other states, there are two types of child custody: 1) legal custody; 2) physical custody. Not all parents understand the difference between the two types of custody, and it can sometimes be confusing. When a parent has legal custody of a child, then the parent has the right to make…
You must be logged in to post a comment.