If you are a business owner in Massachusetts who is seeking a divorce, it’s important to know that your business will be up for equitable division during the property division stage of things. In fact, before your divorce can be finalized, a property division settlement that addresses how all property—including your business—will be divided must…
Many couples choose to take a period of separation where they are living apart before officially filing for a divorce. If this is the case for you and your spouse, you may be curious as to whether or not living apart qualifies as grounds for a divorce in Massachusetts. Here’s what you should know about…
Getting married is perhaps the biggest life decision that you’ll ever make. Not only is it a decision about how you want to spend your life, but it’s also a large financial decision, too. For individuals who want to protect their assets and reduce the risk of litigation in the event of a divorce, a…
If you are getting a divorce, it’s important to know that retirement accounts and pension funds will likely be subject to equitable division before the divorce can be finalized. At the Law Office of Heather M. Ward, our experienced divorce attorney can help you to understand the law and your options for dividing retirement accounts…
The rights of parents are strongly protected in Massachusetts. Even in the event of a divorce, the court is very unlikely to revoke the rights of one party—the court usually finds that it is in the child’s best interests to maintain a relationship with both parents.
For many couples living throughout Massachusetts, marriage is not the right answer; instead, a domestic partnership allows a couple to have legal recognition of their relationship without all the bells and whistles of a wedding ceremony. However, a domestic partnership that’s registered is still a legal relationship in the eyes of the law, which means…
Making the decision to leave your spouse may be the hardest thing you ever do. Not only is divorce emotional, but it can be legally complex. What’s more, conflict and disagreement throughout the process that leads to divorce litigation can only exacerbate feelings of exasperation. At the Law Office of Heather M. Ward, we believe…
Most people think of divorce as a contentious, divisive process that’s characterized by large courtroom battles and litigation. While divorce can look like this, it doesn’t have to. Indeed, there is an alternative to the contentious divorce: collaborative divorce. Here’s what you should know about collaborative divorce and when it may be a good option…
At the time that a couple divorces, there are dozens of things they’ll need to think about and resolve—many of them not just logistical, but legal matters. For example, a final divorce judgment will need to address things like division of property, spousal support, and child custody and support if the couple has children.
One of the hardest parts of divorcing for parents with children is determining where shared children will live and what the responsibility of the other parent will be. In addition to child custody, the court will also issue a judgment for child support. Here’s what you should know about how child support is calculated in…