Cavanagh v. Cavanagh - The Case, the Conundrum, & the Consequences Introduction by Nathaniel Butzke More than a year after its release, the Massachusetts SJC decision in Cavanagh v. Cavanagh (2002) remains a topic of discussion at every Massachusetts family law and mediation conference.  The decision had many ripple effects, still being felt on the beachhead of every divorce case involving child support or alimony. Following is an in depth review of the case and some of those effects. Introduction: In divorce proceedings, determining alimony awards is a complex process that requires careful consideration of various factors. Judges tasked with making these decisions must weigh the financial circumstances of both parties, ensuring that the supported spouse can maintain a lifestyle similar to that before the divorce, and children have access to similar households in either parents' care. However, interpreting the law governing alimony can present practical challenges, especially ...

by Valerie Qian & Justin L. Kelsey The Alimony Reform Act of 2011 defined what alimony is and how it should work in much greater detail than the prior law.  The Alimony Reform Act, 2011 Mass. Acts ch. 124. However, it also left many questions unanswered. In the six years since the Act became effective, on March 1, 2012, the courts have slowly been further clarifying, and in some cases arguably undercutting, the Act.  In this article, we will summarize the provisions of the Act and note the court cases that have affected the language of those sections. Alimony: What is it?  Alimony is defined in the Act as ' the payment of support from a spouse, who has the ability to pay, to a spouse in need of support for a reasonable length of time, under a court order.' Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 208 §48 (2012) [hereinafter §48]. Since March 2012, the courts have made clear that this is how the law has defined alimony even prior to the Act, and the Act did not cha...

Alimony cases come with their complications, and the Alimony Reform Act raised may questions for people who already had alimony orders prior to 2012. As with any other element of domestic law, it truly runs on a case by case basis. To give you an idea, we will dive into two alimony cases that resulted in significant decisions for the parties involved. But before you head in full force, why don’t we take a moment to go over The Alimony Reform Act of 2011; it’s important to the story trust me. Though the act did not alter the definition of alimony, it did make adjustments to specific aspects such as the durational limits. In the act, it was decided that if a marriage lasted less than 20 years, there may be an option to terminate payments at a certain point. Now, let’s give some background on the couples shall we? Our first case, featuring Joanne M. Popp and Robert L. Popp , centers around a change in alimony payment due to cut wages. A huge factor in this case is the duration of th...

On Friday, February 19, 2016, Massachusetts Representative John Fernandes filed House Bill HD4546  to override the ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Chin v. Merriot, a case which marked the return of lifetime alimony in Massachusetts. Fox 25 News reported on the filing , and spoke with Steve Hitner , who was part of the Task Force that drafted the bill.  Steve, and many others (including the authors of this blog), believed the Alimony Reform Act of 2011 clearly allowed the modification of merged alimony orders in instances of retirement age or cohabitation.  However, the SJC read the Act to only allow application of these rules for post March 1, 2012 orders.  Unless the legislature acts, this means that there are different rules for pre-2012 and post-2012 alimony cases. HD 4546 would clarify the Act, by allowing modification of pre-2012 orders for cohabitation or for the payor reaching full social security retirement age.  If you wan...

Guest Post by Beth Aarons , a Mediator and Collaboratively trained attorney who is of counsel to Skylark Law & Mediation, PC and who also has her own practice in Newtonville .  Beth is available for consultation on adoptions , like the one discussed below: In a recent slip opinion Adoption of a Minor, SJC-11797 , the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) determined that a known sperm donor of a child born to a married same-sex couple is not a legal parent of the child who would be entitled to notice of the child’s adoption. J.S. and V.K., two women legally married to each other, conceived a child through artificial insemination with a known sperm donor.  The child’s birth certificate names J.S. and V.K. as the legal parents and to protect their rights they sought to jointly adopt their son to ensure equal recognition of their parentage outside of Massachusetts.  The Probate and Family Court declined to allow the adoption to proceed absent legal notice to t...

The SJC reached a decision on 1/30/2015 on three cases that interpreted the modification provisions of the Alimony Reform Act.  The SJC disagreed with our prior interpretation and decided that the provisions on retirement age and cohabitation can not be read retroactively.  To read more on these decisions check out our post here:  Lifetime Alimony is Back (for some)! - Chin v. Merriot . If your case is a post March 1, 2012 case then all of the Act's provisions apply to you and your case would be modifiable pursuant to the terms of your Judgment read in conjunction with all provisions of the Act.  The following flow-chart depicts the decision tree for determining whether you qualify for a modification of a Massachusetts alimony order under The Alimony Reform Act of 2011 if your original divorce was completed prior to March 1, 2012: You may reprint or distribute this Infographic on your website so long as the copyright and contact information for Kelsey & T...

Three months ago we told you about three very important pending cases that were argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, all three having to do with the issue of alimony modification. Today, the SJC released their decision on these three cases ( Chin v. Merriot , Rodman v. Rodman , and Doktor v. Doktor ) and in doing so they have created two clearly separate classes of alimony cases: those cases that were decided prior to March 1, 2012 and those that were decided after March 1, 2012. On March 1, 2012, the Alimony Reform Act took effect, and it included limits on the amount and duration of alimony orders going forward.  It was the law before the Act, and still is, after the Act, that alimony orders which are merged into the Judgment are modifiable if there has been a material and significant change in circumstances.  The Act also provides that the duration of old orders can be modified based solely on the "durational limits" in the new Act, even if there ...

In the case of Bower v. Bournay-Bower , the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that Judges in the Probate and Family Court cannot grant a Parent Coordinator  binding authority over the objection of one of the parties.  However, the SJC went much further then necessary in order to open the door for what might be the "appropriate circumstances" to order a Parent Coordinator. In Bower , the SJC summarized the trial judge's order as requiring a parent coordinator to: "hear the parties' current and future disputes regarding custody and visitation in the first instance, before the parties could file any action regarding these disputes in court. The order also granted the parent coordinator the authority to make binding decisions on matters of custody and visitation and provided that these decisions must be complied with by the parties as if they were court orders unless one of the parties were to go to the court before the decision was to take effect...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has released another opinion that addresses some of the questions still surrounding the Alimony Reform Act of 2011. Zaleski v. Zaleski - SJC 11391 (2014). In Zaleski, the Appeals Court addressed four primary issues in the lower court's decision: Rehabilitative Alimony ordered instead of General Term Alimony - AFFIRMED Husband's bonus income not included in alimony amount calculation - REMANDED Wife ordered to maintain life insurance for her child related obligations - REMANDED Property Division not exactly equal - AFFIRMED We've summarized the take-away points from this decision: 1. Trial Judges have even more DISCRETION now Footnote 13 confirms what many practitioners have been saying about the new Act:   "The legislative history clearly shows that the broad discretion judges historically have had in making awards of alimony was not affected by the Alimony Reform Act of 2011, St. 2011, c. 124 (alimony...