Husband Receives No Part of Wife’s $12,000,000 Inheritance

The Appeals Court upheld a Probate judgment in which the judge did not award husband any part of the wife’s $12,000,000 inherited interest in various trusts.  The decision does not indicate the precise extent of the marital estate but infers that the wife was left with substantially greater assets than the husband.  The parties lived…

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Is Income Equalization Dead?

The Probate Court equalized the incomes of two parents with a child support order.  On the father’s appeal, the Appeals Court affirmed.  On further appellate review, the SJC vacated the support award, holding that “income equalization is inconsistent with principles that inform child support orders in the Commonwealth.” Such orders, said the SJC, should not…

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More questions than answers for mediators after ‘Bott’

The following letter to the editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly was published on August 23, 2012. Please click here to download the PDF. To the editor: The recent Supreme Judicial Court opinion, In the Matter of Bott, 462 Mass. 430 (2012), has attracted widespread attention in the local mediation community. Because of its potential ramifications, many…

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