Olivia De Recat created the amazingly simple but impactful image below.  There are multiple types of relationships depicted, and yet many more that could be added. There is beauty in both the simplicity and the depth of the drawing.  On my first viewing I thought of this quote from the movie Fight Club: "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."  The image reminds us that every relationship is finite, and that is both sad and powerful. Upon thinking about it more, I realized the drawing also shows how many ways our lives are touched by so many different types of relationships.  While we often try to process our relationships as good or bad, there is no judgment on the quality of a relationship based on its closeness over time.  There are just differences in how we experience our interactions with different people at different times in our lives. That also reminds me of how many different marriages there are.  As a divorce...

Guest Post from Julie Tolek * That magical moment that you have been waiting for has finally happened. Your significant other proposed and YOU SAID YES! Or you proposed and YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER SAID YES! You both have your wedding goggles on and all you can see are hearts and rainbows and as you start to plan the wedding, romance is in the air and the love is palpable. You set the date. Your friends and family then save the date. The flowers have been ordered. The wedding planner is pulling everything together. And then one of you dares utter the “P” word. Prenup. PRENUP. PRE. NUP. The record stops and the world goes silent and time stops and you wonder if you really heard what you thought you heard. PRE Nope.  Or if you are the one who brought it up, you wonder if it’s too late to slur your words so they sound like something else. “Honey, I said we need to CLEAN UP. I can’t BELIEVE you thought I said PRENUP!”  And then you avoid eye contact. Everything...

The 2016 U.S. Presidential election has many talking points and topics that engender strong reactions.  The significant difference between the various presidential candidates and their platforms explains some of the vehemence with which many defend or attack the 2016 candidates.  Since this blog focuses primarily on the impact of the law on families and family conflict, we will concentrate on only one portion of the presidential platforms: How does each 2016 U.S. Presidential Platform address the American family? These platforms are presented in no particular order and we do not endorse any of the following platform positions.  We are providing them specifically so you can decide for yourselves (and we encourage all eligible voters to vote in the election ): 2016 Republican Party Platform Word Cloud The 2016 Republican Party Platform  mentions the words "family" or "families" 72 times, the words "child" or "children" 50 times, the word...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Post by Valerie Qian .  Valerie is an Associate at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC.  Valerie's practice includes family law & divorce representation, mediation, and collaborative divorce. The Presumption of Legal Parentage to a child born of a Marriage Is it presumed that a child who is born into a marriage is legally the child of the other spouse of the marriage?  The short answer is yes, regardless of whether the child is biologically related to the other spouse. The statute governing this question in Massachusetts is Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 209C, Section 6 .  Moreover, any child born as a result of artificial insemination with spou...

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states on Friday, June 26, 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges , a 103 page decision which we read so you don't have to.  You should, but seriously, most of you probably won't.  Many people will just read that headline and know that there has been an important change in the status of legal relationships in the U.S.  Both the majority and dissents agree on one thing, this is a significant and far-reaching decision. For full coverage of the decision itself and the legal impact, visit SCOTUS blog . For now we're posting the tl;dr version of the majority and dissenting opinions: Here is what each opinion seems to say about the author's view of marriage: Robert's Dissent:    Marriage is an institution. Scalia's Dissent:     Marriage limits your expression. Thomas's Dissent:  Marriage has nothing to do with liberty. Alito's Dissent:       Marriage is for procreation. Kenn...

A disturbing item of recent news is the proliferation of positive pregnancy tests for sale on craigslist and similar sites.  Aside from the grossness factor of buying a stick someone urinated on, this practice raises some obvious and some not-so-obvious concerning scenarios.  Are the potential purchasers of these positive tests looking to commit a prank, or actually trying to convince someone that they are pregnant? If such a test was used to obtain a marriage proposal are their legal ramifications to that fraud?  Fraud can carry criminal sanctions if the intent was to extort money or sex from someone, and can also result in actionable civil damages.  Taken one step further, if the fraud resulted in a marriage, would that marriage be legal? While there are ways in which a marriage can be void, fraud does not automatically void a marriage.  However, since marriage is a contract it can be voidable.  In other words a marriage can be annulled if the cont...

M.G.L. 208 s 34 provides a list of factors for the court to consider in dividing marital property and/or assigning alimony awards. One of these factors is "the conduct of the parties during the marriage." Quite often this is the factor that clients want to talk about the most, but is the least important factor to the court. Although adultery and other offensive behavior may have led to the divorce, the Judges are used to seeing this behavior in so many cases that they become jaded to it and prefer to focus on the financial factors most of the time. This means that bad conduct which affects the finances (such as spending money on an extra-marital affair or gambling) will be taken into account, but often bad conduct which does not affect the finances will not. However, this does not mean that non-financial bad conduct has no effect at all, and sometimes if it is egregious enough the court may consider its effect on the marriage itself. Especially if the conduct is sig...

In Massachusetts there are statutory waiting periods that control when the divorce becomes final (also called Absolute). Until the divorce is officially final you cannot remarry anywhere without committing bigamy (i.e. being married to two people). In Massachusetts the length of this waiting period depends on the type of divorce case. In a Joint Petition for Divorce under Section 1A of M.G.L. c. 208, if both parties agree that there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and agree on all other issues related to their marriage, as described in a Separation Agreement, then you can file a Joint Petition for Divorce. The Court will set a date and time for an uncontested divorce hearing, once you have filed a Joint Petition for Divorce, a certified copy of the Marriage Certificate, an Affidavit of Irretrievable Breakdown, a Certificate of Absolute Divorce or Annulment, a Separation Agreement, two Rule 401 Financial Statements, and two Certificates of Attendance at the Paren...

A recent tongue-in-cheek blog post by fellow attorney and blawger, Gabriel Cheong, describes his support for the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act. The 2010 California Marriage Protection Act, a proposed amendment available at http://rescuemarriage.org/2009/08/22/2010-california-protection-of-marriage-act/ , takes Proposition 8 one step further by banning divorce in the state of California. Support of the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act demonstrates the hypocrisy of attacking gay marriage for being detrimental to the sanctity of marriage when the state allows divorce. Divorce, after all, is the ultimate attack on the sanctity of marriage. Although this is the classic slippery slope argument, the method can hardly be questioned by those who claim gay marriage will lead to people wanting to marry their pets. This leads to the question: What does it really mean to protect the sanctity of marriage? Sanctity is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as 1. the holiness...