Experienced Legal Service
for Dedham and the Greater Boston Area
A divorce needs to address all marital assets and liabilities. Included in the liabilities are joint credit card debt. The final divorce judgment should address the joint credit card debts and explain who must pay the debt. The debt can be split between the spouses or...
On May 31, 2012, the First CircuitCourt of Appeals unanimously struck down Article 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA was enacted in 1996 in response to the possibility that Hawaii would legalize same gender marriage. Section 2 of DOMA allows individual...
Facebook and social networking are rapidly impacting divorces. It is not uncommon for information posted on Facebook to be used as evidence in divorce and custody matters. I was recently interviewed on television on this issue. People post information on Facebook...
Divorce in this country occurs in all cultures and religions and Islamic couples are not immune from divorce. A divorce in Florida reportedly raises unusual issues because of a traditional Islamic custom called a Sadaq. A Sadaq is a marriage contract in which it is...
QDRO stands for “Qualified Domestic Relations Order.” The term is created by federal law and applies to retirement plans created under ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA is the federal law that allows private employers and individuals to have...
As a general rule, parents, after divorce, don't communicate well with each other. If they could communicate well, they probably wouldn't have gotten divorced. This lack of communication creates a vacuum. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so do children. Unless the...
Recently, Judge Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, wrote an opinion interpreting the Massachusetts Security Deposit law, G.L. c. 186, § 15B. In the case of Hermida v. Archstone, (Civil Action No. 10-12083-WGY) the court addressed an...
The Massachusetts Security Deposit law, G.L. c. 186, § 15B, states that a landlord cannot require a tenant to pay any money at the inception of a tenancy except (i) rent for the first full month of occupancy; (ii) rent for the last full month of occupancy calculated...
In Massachusetts, in order for the landlord to charge for water and sewer, there are a number of specific steps that have to be taken. There has to be water conserving fixtures installed and the water has to be separately metered. A plumber has to certify as to the...
Every now and then, it is fun to look at ordinary events in our lives and examine how law interacts with the event. Halloween is one of those events. Massachusetts was home to the Salem witchcraft trials. These trials occurred in 1692 in which 19 people were...
