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New year, new law.



Effective as of January 1, 2025, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had implemented the Massachusetts Parentage Act (“MPA”). The MPA has expanded parenting relationships by:
* Replacing the terms “mother” and “father” with “parent” and “person who gave birth;”
* Creating a process for children establish parentage; and
*Clarifying ways in which parentage can be defined (ie. giving birth, adoption, voluntary acknowledgement, court order, presumption, genetic connection, de facto, or intended parentage).

It will be really interesting to see how these new laws will be further defined in future years. We expect that there will be a tremendous amount of litigation surrounding presumption, genetic connections and intended parentage.

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Last Name.

It started off “Hey cutie, where you from?”And then it turned into “Oh no! What have I done?”And I don’t even know my last name….
-Carrie Underwood

Annulments are rare. In approximately 20 years of practice, we’ve done one annulment. One.

When an annulment is granted, it is as though the marriage never existed. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,  at least one the allegations must be proven for an annulment to be granted:
1. Bigamy;
2. Consanguinity;
3. Fraud;
4. Duress in the inducement to get married;
5. Impotence or known lack of ability to have children (with a representation to the contrary);
6. Mental incapacity , which can include being excessively intoxicated:

7. Being under age at the time of marriage.

Where an annulment voids a marriage, it is possible that an individual can represent themselves as never married. We are always curious whether people who get a marriage annulled even disclose their previous situation to a future spouse.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do you agree with the idea of annulment in principle? Do you think that a person should have to list an annulled marriage on an application for a future marriage license?

 

 

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Stuck With You.

Can you imagine purposefully living with your ex after you’ve separated? It’s not uncommon for couples to live together during the separation process, but cohabitation after the divorce is final has historically been very rare.

Prior to Covid, we can remember only one couple that lived together post divorce. The husband wanted to keep the marital home but he was unable to buy out the Wife’s share of the equity at the time of the divorce; typically, in this type of situation, the home would have typically been listed for sale but the wife graciously agreed to wait until after her 99 year old father in law, who also lived there, passed or was otherwise relocated. *

While this type of situation is still very rare, some couples do consider some form of cohabitation post-divorce. We recently worked on an agreement where the parties alternated use of the marital home depending on who had parenting time. We’ve also created agreements for parents who intend to live together so that they both could be physically present on a daily basis. While we always love the idea of providing a united front to the children and keeping things are “normal” as possible, we haven’t found any research to support whether these situations are actually in the best interest of the children.

If parties are going to even consider cohabitation post-divorce, there need to be some well established ground rules. How long will this arrangement last? What happens if one person decides that they no longer wish to cohabitate or wants to buy out the other? Who is covering each specific household expense? Who will be responsible for household chores? Will one parent be paying child support during the cohabitation period? Will they be able to problem solve and communicate better once divorced? What will happen when one person starts to date?**

There are a multitude of reasons that people consider cohabitation post-divorce, including:
1. The transition from a two income household is not always easily manageable if both parties are not self sufficient (with or without child support or alimony);
2. One party may have credit issues which may effect their ability to buy or rent; OR
3. Suitable housing may be difficult to find, especially if a person is hoping to remain in the same school district or needs an apartment with more than two (2) bedrooms.

While these reasons (and others) are certainly understandable, the traditional options are still the default: either you list the house for sale or one party buys out the other by giving them a portion of the equity in the marital home.

As always, we welcome your thoughts our newsletter or answer any questions!

Regards,
Faye & John



* In this case, waiting actually increased the value of her equity in the home due to the spike in home values during this period.

** Do you remember this scene from The Break Up? Ironically, this is probably the least uncomfortable and complex situation that might occur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoXW_FZtCO4

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Median, Mode and Range.

ong, long ago, we were in a graduate school statistics class* as a precursor to beginning a Master’s thesis study. The most important take away from the class was understanding that how you manipulate numbers determines whether your hypothesis is supported or disproven. Whether by median, mode or average, we still love to look at data and determine how to best use it to our client’s advantage. We recently found some some statistics related to divorce** that we thought would be fun to share:

1. The divorce rate has dropped significantly over the years last 10-15 years. While it was previously thought that you had a 50% chance of getting a divorce, the current rate is thought to be around 39%. The reason for the decline could be due to so many things, including millennials getting married later or not at all.
2. Nevada continues to have the highest divorce rate in the United States. Apparently, what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas and regret does fit in a suitcase.
3. Massachusetts actually has one of the lower rates of divorce in the United States. It is thought that the divorce rate within the Commonwealth is approximately 2.6%; however, this statistic is slightly skewed because some states, including Georgia, Hawaii and Minnesota do not even report their statistics.
5. The global divorce rate has increased by 252% since the 1960’s. Russia is believed to have the highest divorce rate in the world; it seems reasonable that it will continue to maintain that top spot given the stress related to recent world events.
6. Second (and any thereafter) are more likely to fail than a first marriage. We often ponder if people who are married more than twice are really just hopeless romantics who aspire, but struggle to find ever lasting love.

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