How long it takes to get divorced can be divided into three stages: Stage 1: How long does it take you to start your divorce process?  This is completely up to you and your spouse. Stage 2: How long does your divorce process take?  This can depend significantly on the type of process you choose.  Mediation is typically faster than going to court, for example. Stage 3: How long does it take for a divorce to become final once filed with the court?  In Massachusetts, once a divorce is finalized by approval of an agreement by a Judge or by a judgment after trial, there is still a waiting period before the divorce is final.  This is called the Nisi period.  In a Joint Petition for Divorce this waiting period is 120 days.  In a Complaint for Divorce this is a 90 day waiting period (though it's also important to note that a Complaint cannot go to Judgment until at least six months after the date of service). Given this 120 waiting period if you're lo...

Today, May 18, 2018, the court announced at the MCLE Family Law Conference that a new child support guidelines worksheet will be effective as of June 15, 2018.  The new worksheet is available here .  While the base Guidelines themselves have not changed, the language will be updated to reflect the changes to the worksheet (the new guidelines are expected to be released on May 22, 2018). The updates to the worksheet solves a few issues that arose from the use of the original worksheet.   There have been a lot of changes to support, both spousal and child support, in the last few months. While everyone is still picking over exactly what the  implications of the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are for alimony , we wanted to take time to review the current situation under the 2017 Child Support Guidelines.  Divorcing parties and practitioners alike should be mindful of these issues, even though a new form has been issued, because any cases for which child su...

Today, May 18, 2018, the court announced at the MCLE Family Law Conference that a new child support guidelines worksheet will be effective as of June 15, 2018. The new worksheet is available here . While the base Guidelines themselves have not changed, the language will be updated to reflect the changes to the worksheet (the new guidelines are expected to be released on May 22, 2018). There have been a lot of changes to support, both spousal and child support, in the last few months. While everyone is still picking over exactly what the implications of the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are for alimony , we wanted to take time to review the current situation under the 2017 Child Support Guidelines.  Divorcing parties and practitioners alike should be mindful of these issues, even though a new form has been issued, because any cases for which child support was set from September 15, 2017 to June 15, 2018 may now be modifiable. The first issue involves the original worksheet Table B...

Improving Negotiations using Collaborative Values: A Checklist of Tools by Beth Aarons, JD, MSW , Jody Comins, MSW , and Justin Kelsey, JD On April 27, 2018, we presented to the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council ’s annual forum at a workshop entitled: Using Collaborative Values to Shift Parties from Litigation to Cooperation . The theme of this workshop was to take collaborative values and discuss how we can use these tools in all of our cases: negotiated, litigated, or mediated. This is not a unique idea. David Hoffman has spoken and written about “cooperative negotiation” and Lainey Feingold has written and practiced “structured negotiation,” both of which share many overlapping tools that are used in the official Collaborative Law Process, with slight exceptions. In fact, we would argue that these negotiation processes have more in common with Collaborative Law than they do with litigation or more traditional attorney negotiation. This leads us to the question t...

This is a guest post from Justin L. Kelsey's consulting business,  Gray Jay Endeavors LLC .  Gray Jay provides QDRO and DRO preparation, and education and consulting services relating to retirement division in divorce.  Gray Jay has been working on resources to assist attorneys, mediators, and parties in this process, such as the following checklist: Download the Retirement Division Checklist Retirement Division Basics: In order to divide retirement as a part of a divorce, there is a one-time exception to the normal tax implications for withdrawals from retirement.  This exception allows a non-taxable transfer to a spouse's or ex-spouse's retirement account.  This can include the division of pensions, 401ks, IRAs and other types of retirement.  The document required to complete this transfer is usually called a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (“QDRO”) or Domestic Relations Order (“DRO”) depending on the type of retirement plan. Most attorneys...