We recently posted a lengthy review of the the Massachusetts SJC decision in Cavanagh v. Cavanagh (2002)  and a similar overview of the subsequent SJC decision Openshaw v. Openshaw (2024) .  Both of these cases had significant rulings that should be reviewed in child support and alimony cases in Massachusetts.  Here, though, we want to focus on just one area these decisions have affected: how best to complete the court form Financial Statement in divorce cases. When completing the income section of the Financial Statement, people often struggle with how to deal with variable income and how to accurately address deductions from income.   The Financial Statement includes spaces for many times of income but it assumes the number is static.  For bonus, commissions, or second job income (which was an issue in Cavanagh), the income is often variable over time.  This is where we encourage our clients to use endnotes to explain any variability or expected chan...

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 ...

In Divorce nothing is as simple as it may seem at first. This is just one of the reasons it's vitally important to obtain good financial and legal advice during the divorce process. Social Security is an example of how something that seems simple can actually be a very complicated discussion in divorce. Consider the question: Can Social Security benefits be transferred or divided as part of a divorce? The simple answer is no. The more complicated answer is that while the benefit itself cannot be transferred, Social Security does provide for benefits for divorced spouses in certain circumstances, and many courts have also ruled that the amount of a Social Security benefit can affect other determinations. For example, in Massachusetts the case of Mahoney v. Mahoney , held that the court could consider the Social Security benefit owed to the husband in that case when determining the equitable division of the wife's retirement benefit. In Mahoney, the trial Judge awarde...

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...

Guest Post from Valerie Qian* Does it make a difference for my legal rights if my spouse and I lived together before we got married? The lawyerly answer, which I know is one most people can’t stand, is “it depends.” The Bortolotti v. Bortolotti case, a 1:28 unpublished decision that came down from the Appeals Court in April 2018, sheds some more light on this situation. The relevant statute, M.G.L. c. 208 §48 , provides that the legal length of a marriage may be extended by periods of cohabitation if the parties had an “economic partnership” during these periods of cohabitation. The Bortolotti decision clarifies that “economic partnership” exists both in situations where both parties contribute income to the household, and in situations where one party may be economically dependent on the other. The decision further notes that when a judge exercises her discretion to exclude premarital assets from the marital estate, she should use a valuation of those assets at the time of the ...

Guest Post from Julie Tolek * In the recent case of Smith v. Smith (17-P-765) , the Appeals court upheld a finding of not guilty of contempt of disobeying a court order to pay alimony, but vacated and remanded as to the retroactive modification of alimony made by the trial Judge due to the parties' verbal agreements, stating that retroactive modification of alimony requires findings “reflecting [the judge’s] consideration of all the factors mandated by” the statute. quoting Pierce v. Pierce, 455 Mass. 286 (2009). After a divorce which included an order for the husband to pay alimony, the parties agreed among themselves that the husband would pay less than the amount of alimony in their separation agreement. Relying on this agreement, the husband contributed financially to various expenses for his emancipated children, including payment toward a wedding, down payments for two of his children’s houses, and payment toward liabilities. After receiving a letter from the Wife’s att...

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...

post by Jennifer Hawthorne In most families, when spouses decide that getting a divorce may be the best road forward for their family, one of the first questions that almost universally causes concern is what lifestyle will my family live after the divorce. Will there be enough money to support two households and keep us comfortable and even relatively close to the lifestyle we live now? In Massachusetts, the two basic statutory means for one spouse to provide support for the other’s household after a divorce are child support and alimony. There is a third option that essentially combines the two into unallocated support, which you can read more about by clicking here . Child Support changes with new circumstances: If there are children involved, discussions with professionals will usually start with child support which is based on guidelines that dictate a specific formula be applied resulting in a presumptive amount of support. During such a discussion, you will learn that ...

With the release of the updated 2017 Child Support Guidelines , everyone is talking about how the new guidelines will change current child support orders. Right at the cusp of the child support alteration was a case in the middle of the child support debate around court v. self-modification of child support orders: Calabria v. Calabria, 91 Mass. App. Ct. 763 - Mass: Appeals Court 2017.   In Calabria, the stipulations in the initial separation agreement of the couple in question were as follows: “The parties agree that upon any change in his or her employment of income he or she shall immediately notify mother/father of the change, the child support will be reviewed. This Wife is currently unemployed. The Husband’s income has been cut in half. Both parties are obligated to notify the other upon any change of employment or salary status. Parties agree to immediately seek to modify the child support obligation and said modification to be retroactive to the change of employ...

It is a common refrain that support payments are usually more than the payor wants to pay and less than the recipient wants to receive.  This discrepancy can be extreme when the parties have been used to a particular lifestyle and the payor's income decreases significantly. It is also understandable that a recipient would be skeptical about reducing support if an income decrease for the payor was voluntary, e.g. quitting his or her job. Those were the circumstances in the recent Appeals Court decision: Emery v. Sturtevant .  The husband/payor in the Emery case resigned from a high income position for "personal reasons" and after an extensive job search obtained a much lower paying job in the same line of work.  He then sought a reduction in his child support and alimony which the trial court dismissed indicating that they were attributing income to him at the job he left. The Appeals Court overturned the trial court's decision and directed the lower court to cal...