Kelsey & Trask's Justin Kelsey will be one of the presenters at the upcoming 2014 Collaborative Law Training: presents an Introduction to Collaborative Law Practice 2014: An Interdisciplinary, Interactive, Step-by-Step Training  to Offer A Better Approach to Conflict Resolution. This is a three day introductory training taking place on September 11, 12 & 13, 2014  which will proceed step-by-step through the collaborative process. The program is designed for social workers, psychologists, and other licensed mental health professionals, financial professionals, family law attorneys and civil law practitioners. This training meets the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) standards for trainers and interdisciplinary training. FIND OUT MORE or REGISTER HERE!

For 9 days this past July, Valerie Kua, an associate at Kelsey & Trask, P.C., had the opportunity  to visit the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (formerly Burma) through the Seed of Hope Foundation .  As part of this visit, on Friday, July 18, Valerie presented a lecture on the American legal system at the University of Mawlamyine. Myanmar is the second largest country in Southeast Asia bordering Laos, Thailand, China, Bangladesh and India.  Then known as Burma, Myanmar became an independent nation in 1948 and has spent much of that time in civil war.  Today Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, though the recent lifting of economic sanctions has given the country new opportunities for growth. The University of Mawlamyine is the third largest university in the country, with approximately 8,000 undergraduates.  Two hundred University professors, lecturers and students attended Valerie's Introduction to the American Legal System lect...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has released another opinion that addresses some of the questions still surrounding the Alimony Reform Act of 2011. Zaleski v. Zaleski - SJC 11391 (2014). In Zaleski, the Appeals Court addressed four primary issues in the lower court's decision: Rehabilitative Alimony ordered instead of General Term Alimony - AFFIRMED Husband's bonus income not included in alimony amount calculation - REMANDED Wife ordered to maintain life insurance for her child related obligations - REMANDED Property Division not exactly equal - AFFIRMED We've summarized the take-away points from this decision: 1. Trial Judges have even more DISCRETION now Footnote 13 confirms what many practitioners have been saying about the new Act:   "The legislative history clearly shows that the broad discretion judges historically have had in making awards of alimony was not affected by the Alimony Reform Act of 2011, St. 2011, c. 124 (alimony...

Part of the significant ground-swell of support for a change to Massachusetts alimony laws came after the  Pierce decision , which ordered alimony to continue past retirement.  While a quick reading of the new alimony statute might lead you to believe otherwise, there are a number of scenarios in which alimony could (and in many cases will) still continue past retirement age. The Alimony Reform Act of 2011, which became effective on March 1, 2012 provides for multiple types of alimony, and for maximum amounts and duration of alimony.  Any alimony orders that were in effect prior to March 1, 2012 will be considered General Term Alimony, and the Act included duration limits for General Term Alimony that we described at length in a previous post. One of the limitations on duration is contained in M.G.L. c. 208 s 49(f)  and indicates that the court SHALL terminate alimony "upon the payor attaining the full retirement age."  Full retirement age is defined as when...

The Alimony Reform Act of 2011 added a formula to Massachusetts Alimony determinations: "Except for reimbursement alimony or circumstances warranting deviation for other forms of alimony, the amount of alimony should generally not exceed the recipient’s need or 30 to 35 per cent of the difference between the parties’ gross incomes established at the time of the order being issued. Subject to subsection (c), income shall be defined as set forth in the Massachusetts child support guidelines." M.G.L. c. 208 s 53(b)  (emphasis added)   Mathematical formulas are convenient and many practitioners and Judges are running the formula right away to see what the boundaries of alimony are (we've even encouraged this behavior with the creation of a website calculator and iPhone App ).  But the recent decision in  Hassey  indicates that the formula should not be the first step in the alimony inquiry. The formula should not be the first step in the alimony inquiry. ...

from Wikipedia The Middlesex Probate & Family Court already has a very successful and convenient "Fast Lane" program for so-called uncontested divorce petitions (Section 1A Joint Petitions for Divorce).  It saves time for both the courts and the parties to be able to walk an uncontested matter in to the courthouse and, if all of their paperwork is in order, be heard the same day. According to a press release dated July 9, 2014 ( available here ), the Court will now be expanding this type of procedure to include Informal Estate Administration Petitions: "Tara E. DeCristofaro, Register of the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, has announced that she will be piloting a walk-in session for informal petitions. The walk-in session will be available in the Registry every Tuesday afternoon from 12:00 pm. - 3:00 pm., beginning August 5, 2014. If the program is well received, plans are to expand it to multiple days per week." As with joint petition divorce walk-...

Kelsey & Trask, P.C. was the first to have an iPhone App for calculating Child Support in Massachusetts  and we've recently updated it with a new look .  In addition we are now introducing two new iPhone applications: The Massachusetts Alimony App : Use this worksheet to calculate the maximum amount and duration of alimony in Massachusetts based on the Alimony Reform Act which took effect on March 1, 2012.  The App allows you to save your calculations or e-mail them.    Massachusetts Divorce Calculators App:  Includes the following 4 calculators necessary to determine family support in Massachusetts: Massachusetts Child Support Calculator, Massachusetts Alimony Calculator, Full Retirement Age Calculator, and Alimony Recapture Calculator. The Massachusetts Child Support Calculator is the same one contained in our Child Support App and the Massachusetts Alimony Calculator is the same one contained in our Mass Alimony App :    ...