Springfield MA Family Law Blog

It is no secret that hiring an attorney in Massachusetts is costly, even when everyone is being fair and reasonable and everything is being done to save on unnecessary legal expenses. The reality is that litigating a case is just expensive in the current market.

For those who are cost conscious yet still critically need legal representation, our law office offers an option that may be helpful. This option is called limited assistance representation.

Because it marks a once-in-75-year change, this blog has written previously on the federal government's recent decision to adjust how alimony is treated for federal income tax purposes. To summarize our previous posts, any Massachusetts alimony order finalized on or after January 1 will not be a tax-deductible expense for the person order to pay alimony, nor will it be taxable income to the recipient. In other words, there will be no tax consequences either way with respect to alimony payments.

While we mentioned that this could affect how divorce and other family negotiations proceed in the future, it may be helpful to understand exactly how this change in legal landscape could make the divorce process more contentious, at least when it comes to property division.

Even when both parents agreed at the outset, the reality is that child custody orders in Massachusetts are subject to be changed. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the flexibility gives judges and parents the opportunity to make adjustments when a child's situation changes.

However, custody modifications do not just happen in Massachusetts because one parent wants a change. In fact, even if parents agree to make changes in their parenting plan, they still must submit those changes to the court for approval. The court will have to verify that these agreed changes really are in the child's best interests.

Many people in Springfield, Massachusetts take second jobs, or do extra hours at their first jobs, in order to make ends meet. Sometimes, this is just a matter of having a little extra spending cash in one's wallet, while at other times a family literally cannot pay the bills without one of the members working a second job.

When a family splits through divorce or, in the case of an unmarried, just an informal parting of ways, the fact that a person has a second job at the time of breakup can impact child support. This is because, to some extent, the family may have relied on that extra income for their living expenses, and children have the right to continue to receive support commensurate with that extra income.