Franklin Legal Blog

Our justice system is adversarial by nature: Most cases pit one party against another, and the two sides take turns arguing why it is right and the other is wrong. The court listens to both sides and comes to a decision about how justice should be served.

When this method applies to a divorce case, it means pitting the spouses against each other, so that they can argue about who deserves what in the division of property. These arguments can get heated very quickly, and angry arguments can often lead to long-lasting resentments. It's bad enough when these resentments follow an argument over property, but when they involve young children, they can be harmful to everyone involved, especially the children. For this reason and others, mediation is often a better choice than trial for resolving family law issues involving children, especially child custody, or parenting, as it is known in Massachusetts law.

Knowing how military benefits will be divided during divorce may understandably be a top concern for divorcing couples when one or both spouses is in the military. Divorcing military couples should be familiar with both civil laws, which include divorce laws, and military regulations.

To understand how military benefits may be divided during the divorce process, it is helpful to look at different types of military benefits and answer the question as to how they will be divided. The Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act provides for military retirement to be divided as marital property during the divorce process. The Act does not specify how the property will be divided but allows for it to be divided as part of the property division process during divorce.

There are several steps divorcing couples can take if they want an amicable divorce process. A divorce that is not contentious can be more efficient, cost less money, take less time and be less costly emotionally as well. The mediation process can help divorcing couples avoid court and tradition divorce litigation.

Divorce is a significant transition process. Because it can also be so emotional, it can be difficult to handle all that divorcing spouses have to process. The family law system and divorce process are available to help. It is useful to initially establish grounds rules for the divorce transition process. Getting on the same page concerning the basics is important and then couples can begin working through their divorce-related issues.

One of the main reasons that it is important for both parents to stay involved with the children after divorce is simple: Mothers and fathers are different.

They treat the kids differently. They raise them differently. They have different parenting styles. And studies have shown that children need both of these styles.