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...

Guest Post Series:  Attorney Nicole K. Levy  of  Stevenson, Lynch & Owens  Explores Massachusetts Law in Search of a Clear Definition for "legal custody" in Massachusetts. There are few  family law  issues in Massachusetts that inspire more head-scratching confusion and incorrect assumptions than "legal custody". Unlike  physical custody , legal custody is an abstract idea that purports to embody a parent’s right to participate in a child's major life decisions. In this blog series we examine four common assumptions about legal custody in Massachusetts and attempt to answer the question: what has a parent who has been awarded legal custody really received? See how we addressed each Assumption: Assumption 1 – Access to School & Medical Records Assumption 2 – Consent to Medical Treatment Assumption 3 – The Shared Custody “Veto Power” Assumption 4 – Presumption of Shared Legal Custody What do Massachusetts Appellate Court Decisi...

Guest Post Series:  Attorney Nicole K. Levy  of  Stevenson, Lynch & Owens  Explores Massachusetts Law in Search of a Clear Definition for "legal custody" in Massachusetts. There are few  family law  issues in Massachusetts that inspire more head-scratching confusion and incorrect assumptions than "legal custody". Unlike  physical custody , legal custody is an abstract idea that purports to embody a parent’s right to participate in a child's major life decisions. In this blog series we examine four common assumptions about legal custody in Massachusetts and attempt to answer the question: what has a parent who has been awarded legal custody really received? Assumption 4. Shared Legal Custody is Presumptive  Finally, an assumption about legal custody in Massachusetts that is supported by some law! The Massachusetts divorce statute does indeed make shared legal custody for married parents presumptive at the temporary order stage: [U]ntil...

Guest Post Series:  Attorney Nicole K. Levy  of  Stevenson, Lynch & Owens  Explores Massachusetts Law in Search of a Clear Definition for "legal custody" in Massachusetts. There are few  family law  issues in Massachusetts that inspire more head-scratching confusion and incorrect assumptions than "legal custody". Unlike  physical custody , legal custody is an abstract idea that purports to embody a parent’s right to participate in a child's major life decisions. In this blog series we examine four common assumptions about legal custody in Massachusetts and attempt to answer the question: what has a parent who has been awarded legal custody really received? Assumption 3: A Parent with Shared Legal Custody can “Veto” the Major Educational, Medical and/or Religious Decisions of the Other Parent Many parents believe that shared legal custody provides a kind of "veto power" over major decisions the other parent makes on behalf of a child. Such ...

Guest Post Series:  Attorney Nicole K. Levy  of  Stevenson, Lynch & Owens  Explores Massachusetts Law in Search of a Clear Definition for "legal custody" in Massachusetts. There are few  family law  issues in Massachusetts that inspire more head-scratching confusion and incorrect assumptions than "legal custody". Unlike  physical custody , legal custody is an abstract idea that purports to embody a parent’s right to participate in a child's major life decisions. In this blog series we examine four common assumptions about legal custody in Massachusetts and attempt to answer the question: what has a parent who has been awarded legal custody really received? Assumption 2: A Parent without Legal Custody Cannot Consent to Medical Treatment or Secure New Medical or Therapeutic Providers for Their Child(ren) One of the most widely held assumptions about legal custody is that a parent who lacks legal custody cannot sign a child up for medical treatme...

Guest Post Series: Attorney Nicole K. Levy of Stevenson, Lynch & Owens Explores Massachusetts Law in Search of a Clear Definition for "legal custody" in Massachusetts. There are few family law issues in Massachusetts that inspire more head-scratching confusion and incorrect assumptions than "legal custody". Unlike physical custody , which focuses on the physical location/residence of the children, legal custody is an abstract idea that purports to embody a parent’s right to participate in a child's major life decisions. But what rights does legal custody really include? Virtually every custody case in Massachusetts includes an order for legal custody, but few clients, attorneys or even judges seem able to define exactly what the phrase means. The Statutory Definitions: Legal Custody Under the Massachusetts divorce statute , "shared legal custody" is defined as the “continued mutual responsibility and involvement by both parents in major ...

In 2009, the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines added language acknowledging the increase in shared parenting by specifically defining how the Court should calculate child support differently when parents share parenting time "equally, or approximately equally."  The 2009 Guidelines recognized the sharing of parenting costs in shared parenting arrangements, determining the presumptive support amount "by calculating the child support guidelines twice, first with one parent as the Recipient, and second with the other parent as the Recipient. The difference in the calculations shall be paid to the parent with the lower weekly support amount." Prior to this addition there was significant deviation in how different Judges handled the question of child support in shared parenting arrangements, ranging from no child support to standard child support guidelines, both extremes of which fail to recognize the financial impact of shared parenting. However, the 2009 Gu...

The Minnesota House recently passed a shared parenting bill which has a presumption of at least 45.1% of the parenting time with each parent.  This presumption can be overcome by certain factors.   Attorney Robert Franklin has written an editorial supporting the bill and calling on the Senate and Governor to pass it as well. A similar movement has been trying to get presumptions of shared physical custody passed in Massachusetts, and we reviewed these proposals in our series on Custody Reform . Custody Reform should be based on evidence about what defaults are in the best interest of children. There is evidence of a shift in our society to greater parenting involvement of fathers, but the available evidence is still strongly in favor of very young children spending more time with their mother. Frequent contact with both parents is necessary at a very young age, but equal time doesn't take into account the realities of the unusual feeding and sleeping schedule that newbo...