by Beth Aarons When a former family law colleague of mine told me about Collaborative Law Process sometime around 2008, conceptually it sounded much like a series of traditional four-way meetings, but with a therapist present.  As a fledgling dispute resolution process, I saw no harm in adding this skill set to my professional tool kit to bolster the transition of my practice out of litigation and into dispute resolution. It was not until several years after I had taken the Introduction to Collaborative Law training that I experienced the actual magic of Collaborative Law Process.  The family had been slowly imploding for years and now everything was coming to a head.* Mom and Dad still occupied the same house but had stopped speaking to each other years earlier after Dad had an infidelity.  They had decided to divorce but not tell the kids until there was a plan to separate into two households.  Mom had lost her job and Dad’s salary was not enough to cover two sets ...

"We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.' "  - from the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. Seeking and obtaining the assistance of the courts in resolving disputes is a right afforded the residents of our republic, but it is not always administered justly and equally.  Many have been denied those rights over the years due to discrimination or economic limitations, and it is a privilege of access that many others have come to take for granted. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted just how necessary court access is in emergencies, and also delayed significantly the access to courts for non-emergency matters.  Unfortunately, what constitutes an emergency is very limiting, and for many this means bearing the stress and trauma of ongoing litigation for much longer than even the normal lengthy process.  Now more than ever is the time to consider alternatives. T...

Today is the third Thursday of October, which also happens to be Conflict Resolution Day.  While that may not seem as fun as International Pancake Day , Conflict Resolution Day is an opportunity to think about the challenges we face in our lives, and wonder: Is there a better way to think about conflict;  a model which can free us from our fear of conflict? Conflict is a part of everyday life.  In our individual struggles to survive, grow, connect, and control the world around us, we often find that someone or something is in our way or making it harder to reach our goals.  It is a natural, animal instinct to envision these conflicts as a simple dichotomy: me v. you, us v. them, plaintiff v. defendant, the hero v. the villain, etc.  We see conflict most simply as a tug of war between two positions, two competing interests.  But what if we're thinking about conflict all wrong. If I win, you lose.  If you win, I lose. Picturing conflict ...

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 ...

There is a story that Willie Sutton, a famous bank robber, once responded to a reporter who asked "Why do you rob banks?" with the simple answer "Because that's where the money is!"   While that story is probably made up , it reminds me of the reason that most people go to court to get divorced: because that's where the paperwork has to be filed. Of course, if divorce was as simple as filling out the paperwork then there would be no need to write anything further.  However, the act of getting divorced involves numerous aspects of a couple's lives including finances, parenting, communication, loss of a relationship, forming of new relationship dynamic, etc. One Court's Answer: One court in San Francisco, California has recognized this problem by "strongly recommending" that people filing with the court in family law matters first consider out-of-court dispute resolution options: "The San Francisco Superior Court and its Famil...

A number of recent appellate decisions in Massachusetts have addressed the boundaries of what Probate and Family Court trial judges have the power to do.  Their powers are limited by statute, case law and the Massachusetts Constitution, and sometimes judges exceed those powers by crafting solutions that test the boundaries of their authority. These limitations, however, highlight one of the reasons that more and more people are seeking out-of-court methods of resolving their family conflict.  Agreements reached between the parties can include provisions that the judges don't otherwise have the authority to order.   In this four part blog series we will explore some of the important areas that an Agreement can address but the trial court is limited in addressing.  These are just some of  the most recent examples, and not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the ways that Agreements are better than letting a Judge decide your fate . Part 1:  Future Di...