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Family Law Services
We are a full-service family law practice, with a number of specialities.
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| With you for the distance . . . . |
Family Law Practice Areas |
- Divorce
- Paternity
- Child Support
- Alimony
- Separate
Support
- Domestic Violence
- Grandparents Rights
- Adoption
- Civil and Criminal Contempt
- Limited
Assistant Representation
Limited Assistant Representation |
In May of 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued a mandate to allow qualified attorneys to assist
self-represented litigants on a limited basis. An attorney certified to provide Limited Assistance Representation in
Massachusetts may assist an individual with his or her family law case for either a particular issue or for an event such
as a motion hearing, a pre-trial conference or a status conference, as a one-time appearance, or may assist a self-represented
litigant with the drafting of a pleading or a motion on a limited basis, to include ghost writing a plead. To learn
more about Limited Assistance Representation, please call us at (617) 742-0457 or send us an e-mail on our contact page.
Joint Physical Custody Case I - In this 2004 divorce case, although the mother
initially filed a complaint for divorce that effectively triggered litigation the father, our client, and the mother chose
to work collaboratively to share physical custody of their four-year old son. For reasons of employment, the father
resided in a Mid-Atlantic state and the mother continued to reside in Massachusetts. In 2005, the parties were successful
in placing their child in a daycare center that operated in both Massachusetts and the Mid-Atlantic state. The daycare
center was receptive to implementing a shared preschool and daycare plan tailored specifically for the child so that the parents
could share physical custody of their son. Because both the father and mother agreed to put the best interest of the
child first, we adopted a collaborative approach to settling this case that effectively transformed the litigation process
into meaningful collaboration. Case II - In 2009, in another divorce case, we applied a similar approach
with a Massachusetts father and a Maryland mother who had a one-year old daughter in which each parent agreed at temporary
orders to a shared parenting plan on a trial basis. One year later, in 2010, the mother and father agreed to keep the
then-existing shared parenting plan, alternating each month, for the next three years until the daughter reached school age;
and the parents happily converted their contested divorce into an uncontested divorce. Sexual
Abuse Counter-claim Breaking new ground in Massachusetts, our client raised a sexual abuse counterclaim in
defense of his wife's Complaint for Divorce on the alleged basis of alcoholism. The very sensitive and emotional issue
of sexual abuse was flushed out in this case in a professional manner that was supported at trial by evidence taken from a
sexual therapist. In Massachusetts, there was no law that afforded our client a right to invoke fault grounds for divorce
on the basis of the wife having sexually abused the husband. Nonetheless, we skillfully presented our client's case
by raising a counterclaim for sexual abuse under the penumbra of cruel and abusive treatments, a cognizable fault ground for
divorce. The parties chose to take the case to trial, and our client ultimately prevailed on his sexual abuse counterclaim
for divorce. Domestic Violence and Abandonment In this case, our client,
a stay-at-home mother of four children filed a Complaint for Divorce on the grounds of domestic violence. The husband
refused all terms of settlement and argued to force our client to sell the marital home at trial. Prevailing on her
Complaint for Divorce, our client was allowed to stay in the home with the children and the husband received an equitable
share of the marital home to be realized at a future date. Shortly after the divorce, the ex-spouse fled the state of
Massachusetts after a warrant for his arrest issued when his girlfriend initiated a criminal complaint for assualt and
battery. Our client retained our services, again, to commence a contempt action against the ex-spouse for his failure
to pay child support. Consequently, the court effectively modified the divorce judgment by ordering the ex-spouse's
future equitable share of the marital home be given outright to our client in satisfaction of the past due child support. Same-sex Custody Prior to same-sex
right to marry in May of 2004, a same-sex parent who was not a legal parent had to ask for permission to start a custody action
by filing a Petition in Equity. Our client, the non-custodial parent, chose to start this process because the custodial
parent refused to allow her to visit their son when the couple separated. This meant that the same-sex custodial parent
was entitled to challenge the Petition in Equity by law, claiming that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case because
our client was not recognized as a legal parent. In this case, the same-sex custodial parent invoked her then-legal
rights to bar our client from visitation, and then she challenged the court's jurisdiction in a protracted one-and-a-half
year evidentiary hearing. Given the testimony of the parties' clergyman, a child psychologist, and a favorable recommendation
from the court-appointed guardian-ad-litem at the evidentiary hearing our client effectively established her visitation rights
as a defacto parent. Shortly after, the parties entered into a Stipulation for Judgment on the Petition in Equity that
gave our client parental rights and visitation under the law of Massachusetts.
Our case summaries demonstrate that no two family
law cases are alike, and any given case can often become highly contentious due to certain facts or a turn of events.
We suggest that if you are seriously thinking about self-representation litigation that you consider what legal assistance
you may need, and we welcome your inquires to consider the possibility of providing the service of limited assistance representation
to enable you to resolve your legal issue.
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