It is our hope that all families find a way to resolve conflict peacefully.  This is especially true when children are involved.  Divorced or separated parenting has many complications and the first is just deciding how to share time with a child from two separate households.  Developing a schedule can result in a lot of tension, especially if parents have trouble picturing how this new schedule will interact with their work schedules and the schedules of their children. To help make this easier, we've created an online tool for creating parenting plans that is simple and easy to use: We encourage parents, regardless of the process they are using to divorce, to use this form to assist in evaluating and settling custody disputes. The form allows you to choose between the Model Parenting Plan proposals or customize your parenting plan over a four week period by clicking directly on the form.  When you click on a section of the calendar it switches between ...

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: Many have tried to frame the debate over same-sex marriage or LGBT rights to be a debate over the changing definition of parents and family.  But the truth is that the definition of family has been constantly changing and evolving and the definition of a parent has always differed from family to family.  Some people are raised by a male and female parent, and others are raised by a grandparent, or one parent, or two female or two male parents.  And many children have more than two people that function as parents and role models. The definition of biological parent is clear; requiring a male and female genetic component to create a child.  However, definin...

Our last post  addressed a recent decision by the Massachusetts Appeals Court to extend attorney's fees liability to opposing counsel on a frivolous appeal.  In this post we discuss why was the appeal was considered so frivolous? In Callahan v. Bedard , Case No. 13-P-914, decided on April 23, 2014 ( available here ), the Appeals Court was asked by a father to overturn a lower court's refusal to set aside a Judgment in a paternity case.  The father had signed an agreement for settlement that was incorporated into a Judgment by the Probate and Family Court judge, and about six months later changed his mind and asked the Probate & Family Court to undo the Judgment pursuant to Mass.R.Dom.Rel.P. 60(b). While not explicitly stated by the Appeals Court, the fact that the father was trying to back out of a deal he had willingly made certainly weighed against him.  In addition to the father's bad faith, though, the Appeals Court directly addressed the issue the fathe...

In Massachusetts, if you have any minor children at the time of the filing of a divorce case, you are required to attend the Court-sponsored Parents Apart education program before you can be divorced.  There has not traditionally been a similar requirement for never married parents in Massachusetts, despite the fact that separating parents will have many of the same issues regardless of whether they were married or not. Children whose parents live in separate households may face many of the same difficulties regardless of whether their parents were married.  Recognizing this need, the Probate & Family Court in Massachusetts has a pilot program in three counties seeking to expand parent education for never married parents.  Under Standing Order 6-08  Judges in Hampshire, Essex and Suffolk counties may order parents to attend a program known as "For the Children" when they are a party to a Complaint to Establish Paternity, a Complaint for Custody/Support/Visitat...

This past summer we posted a full blog series on issues facing Unmarried Parents in Massachusetts .  While many issues that unmarried parents face may be different than those faced by married parents, most of the issues will be the same.  Parenting a child still comes with may of the same worries, financial obligations, affections, and lessons, regardless of the parents' relationship with each other.  However, when legal realities collide with economic or practical realities, there may be significant differences in how unmarried parents are treated. Removal cases are one example of this disparity in Massachusetts.  Removal is a legal term of art for the simple concept of when one parent wants to move their residence out of state and take their child with them.  In Massachusetts, M.G.L. c. 208 Section 30 covers the removal of minor children in a divorce case, and prohibits removal without consent of both parents or order of the court.  We explore in what ...

The Duggar Family (from  examiner.com ) The Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines recognize that families with multiple children have increased expenses (although those expenses are not simply doubled with each additional child). The 2009 guidelines included a multiplier for each additional child (up to 5, sorry Duggars).  This multiplier directly increases the amount of child support owed by a specific percentage.  In the 2013 guidelines these percentages were increased, though due to the reduction in the base rates for support the impact on prior orders may simply cancel each other out. The increase in rates is shown below: Obviously from the chart there is not a suggested multiplier for families like the Duggars or Octomom, but the guidelines do at least address these situations by setting a minimum presumption: "The guidelines formula applies to families with 1-5 children. For more than five children, the order should be at least the amount ordered for fiv...

The new Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines effective on August 1, 2013 provide more specificity for the court on how to calculate child support when the combined household income exceeds $250,000. Under the new guidelines, the Court is still given significant discretion as to child support orders in these households but the language of the new guidelines clarifies a few key issues that had previously led to confusion over the court's presumptions and authority in these cases. Under the old guidelines, the language read: These guidelines are not meant to apply where the combined annual gross income of the parties exceeds $250,000. In cases where income exceeds this limit, the Court should consider the award of support at the $250,000 level as the minimum presumptive order. Additional amounts of child support may be awarded in the Court’s discretion. Under the new guidelines, this section reads: These guidelines are calculated up to a maximum combined available annual ...

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 Chief Justice of the Trial Court, Robert A. Mulligan, announced via Press Release the latest revisions to the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines which will become effective on August 1, 2013.  Federal rules require that the court review the guidelines every four years, and the current guidelines were enacted in January of 2009. The Chief Justice, with the assistance of a task force he appointed in 2012, reviewed the guidelines with the hope of "producing guidelines based on the current economic climate for families raising children in Massachusetts." Since August 1 is pretty close, we at Kelsey & Trask, P.C. want to help everyone understand these new guidelines and how they affect current divorce, paternity and child support modification cases.  Over the next few days we will be posting multiple blogs regarding the changes these new child support guidelines will implement, and providing an updated user-friendly calculator to assist ...

Summer is finally here.  The air is humid, the sunblock is out, and it's finally time for vacations and school break.  But enjoying summer too much has its consequences.  Our Summer Lovin' series is about those consequences for Unmarried Parents in Massachusetts: Summer Lovin' Series #1: Unmarried Parents with a Baby on the Way! Unmarried parents who are separated can still plan for the baby's arrival together.  This planning should include how to pay for the expenses of the pregnancy and birth, and how to pay for the expenses of the child once he or she arrives.  In addition, for parents who are living apart, they should begin to consider a reasonable parenting plan for when the baby arrives. A Parenting Plan is a comprehensive agreement which sets out both the time that children will spend with each parent as well as the rights and obligations of each parent to the children and the other parent during their parenting time. It can include a holiday...