UK Supreme Court Pierces the Corporate Veil in Landmark Ruling

This week, in a landmark decision by UK’s Supreme Court, the ex-wife of a Nigerian oil tycoon won a potentially game-changing divorce settlement.  It was argued that Michael Prest tried to conceal assets from his wife by hiding property in an offshore company. The decision to uphold an appeal by Prest’s wife was unanimous – with…

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Hollywood Divorce Sparks $10 Million Battle

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have been tabloid fodder for years now, and yet it seems they are still making waves in the media, this time for their forthcoming divorce.  While Moore and Kutcher first announced their split in 2011, they are not yet divorced. Their divorce filing cited “irreconcilable differences” and Moore was originally…

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Art Student Aces Exam with Divorce Paper Wedding Dress

A fifteen-year-old student in the small town of Crawley, England recently created an art project that has gone viral on the internet.  Hoping to symbolize the tendency of people to rush into marriage and end up divorced, she created a wedding dress completely out of divorce papers.  The dress used divorce papers, arranged in a…

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MA Family Law: Modifying Age of Emancipation of an Out-of-State Child Support Order

As mediators and lawyers, we are often confronted with out-of-state divorce judgments.  Since Massachusetts has the most generous emancipation statute in the country, those out-of-state judgments often provide that support ends long before a child’s 23rd birthday, depending on the state.  Steve and Mary Ellen Freddo had four children and were divorced in Florida.  Following…

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"Gray Divorce" on the Rise

While the circumstances of each divorce vary from couple to couple, there has been a recent influx in “Gray Divorce,” or divorce involving couples over the age of fifty.  This growing phenomenon poses its own set of complications. Most of these issues involve alimony and retirement, things which younger married couples sometimes haven’t even begun…

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Extreme Divorce Avoidance: Man Jumps from Window to Avoid Divorce

Divorce is a difficult decision, one that is not came upon lightly, and it is hard on everyone involved.  This proved especially true for one couple in Jerusalem.  In early March, a man actually jumped out of a courthouse bathroom window to avoid divorce proceedings. This sounds extreme and it is safe to say that…

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Prenup: No Longer Binding?

After spending nearly half a million dollars and three years fighting a bizarre prenuptial agreement, a Long Island woman has won an “unprecedented” case against her estranged millionaire husband, Peter Petrakis. Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis had to prove in court that she was coerced into signing the prenuptial agreement that her husband threw at her only four…

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American Girl Dolls and Divorce

American Girl dolls have been a staple with children since they first debuted in 1986.  They initially presented historical characters at various tumultuous stages in history, surmounting obstacles and overcoming odds.  There was the Colonial American Girl facing the Revolutionary War, the young pioneer whose family was settling the West, and an Eastern European immigrant…

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Social Media, Marriage and Divorce in China, 140 Characters at a Time

Marriage and divorce are huge decisions and both are not made hastily. At Fields and Dennis, we deal with the repercussions of divorce on a daily basis, finding resolutions to some of the most difficult situations. Divorce is not something easily decided upon by our clients, but sometimes it is the only solution. In our…

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Massachusetts Most-Divorced Towns – 2012

New data released by the United States Census Department in December 2012 reports that on average 9.2 percent of Massachusetts residents have reported themselves at one time as being divorced. Conveniently published by WCVB Boston on January 7, 2013, this date is released just in time to encourage any Valentine’s Day cynics that love might…

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