Monthly Archives: July 2025
Do Your Child Support Obligations Change If Your Financial Situation Improves?
Child support plans are durable enough that there are few events that automatically trigger a change. For example, your child support amount automatically changes if you formally change the parenting plan by mediated agreement or by court order. When the parenting plan stays the same but your financial situation changes, then your child support… Read More »
You Can Never Be Too Specific in a Marital Settlement Agreement
Financial decisions within marriage are private. Think about the married couples you know, and how little you know about their finances. Behind the power couples with their fancy cars and their apparently endless resources to devote to socializing are the things you do not see, the home equity lines of credit, the trust funds… Read More »
Alimony for People Who Can’t Catch a Break in Life
When you search for information related to family law or estate planning, you can easily get the feeling that Google thinks that Internet users have more money than they do. The estate planning stuff talks about revocable trusts and the annual gift tax exclusion, when your only option is to work until your old… Read More »
When Does a Marital Settlement Agreement Become a Postnuptial Agreement?
You can read the statistics about getting divorced, but almost getting divorced and then reconciling with your spouse is more common than you think. It’s hard to find data about it because, from a legal perspective, an almost divorced couple is a married couple. When someone in the midst of a pending divorce dies,… Read More »
Divorce and the Default Parent
A recent article on the Scary Mommy website described how “default parent syndrome” can lead to the breakdown of marital relationships and even, sometimes, to divorce. Raising a child with your spouse is a major challenge. One parent, often the mother, can feel that she bears the greater share of the burden for the… Read More »
Whatever You Do, Do Not Trust Bots to Write Your Divorce Paperwork
Litigants in family law cases have the right to represent themselves in court; hiring a lawyer is not mandatory. Despite this, almost everyone who can afford to hire a divorce lawyer does. Representing yourself in a divorce case is inadvisable except in the simplest cases, where the parties do not have children together, were… Read More »
When in the Divorce Process Should You Move Out of the Marital Home?
Imagine that your friend is dating a new guy. When she finally lets you get a word in edgewise, you inquire about his marital status. She says that Mr. Wonderful is almost divorced and then immediately goes back to gushing about him. The more you press your friend for details about what she means… Read More »
Is High Net Worth Divorce the New Normal?
A favorite subject of small talk these days is how little you can buy with your paycheck. You know you have a real friend if there is someone with whom, after the first grocery shopping trip after payday, you can compare notes about how little money is left in your bank account; by the… Read More »