Massachusetts Divorce Law Monitor : Boston, MA Divorce & Family Law Lawyer & Attorney : Nancy Van Tine : Burns & Levinson Law Firm

Hi there,

Done well, by both counsel and the judge, the pretrial conference is a great opportunity to settle a divorce case. That is if you have not already settled it at the four way meeting, in which case you probably will get divorced on the day of the pretrial conference.

If you haven't settled, this is the time for the attorneys to write a memo that tells the story of your circumstances and sets forth in the best light possible what you want, and why you want it.  By the time of the pretrial there should be no open questions as to values or assets.  If there has been a custody issue the Guardian Ad Litem report should be in and should have been reviewed. Both sides must file an up to date financial statement and should file an asset chart as well.

The idea behind the pretrial conference is that the judge can read the memos and the financials; ask the lawyers if they have anything to add then the judge can tell everyone what he or she thinks about the areas of dispute. Then the parties and their lawyers (who hopefully have also brought draft agreements with them) go out in the hallways and try to reach an overall settlement. The court is always willing to take that settlement and get you divorced that day. If you can't agree on everything and your case has to be tried then at least you can narrow the issues and your lawyer has gotten some good insight into how the judge may view matters.

In a perfect world this would happen more or less this way every time, in the real world of the very overburdened court system it doesn't /can't always occur. You may find yourself in the frustrating position of having done everything correctly and getting little or no feedback from the court. Some cases truly do need to be tried as well. There are often valuation issues or contribution issues that are so disparate that they require a trial, and perhaps, most unfortunately, custody cases often require a trial.

But.... easily 95% of all cases settle before, at or close to the pretrial and settle as a result of the work done in preparing for the pretrial.

Best,

Nancy
 

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Hi There,

I was reading the other blogs listed on the side mine and there was this very interesting post on the New Hampshire Family Law Blog.  It goes to show how complex the question of gay marriage and divorce really is.

Then my partner, Peter Zupcofska, was interviewed and did a great job setting out the legal differences and how to potentially handle them.

Best,

Nancy

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Hi there,

This sounds vaguely improper but it is the term used to describe the Court mandated meeting between the parties and their lawyers that must take place prior to the pretrial conference.  This requirement is set forth in each Judges' pretrial order. It is important that before this occurs substantially all of the discovery is done, the valuation reports and appraisals are complete and have been exchanged and the GAL report has been done and reviewed by the parties and counsel. This allows counsel to have done asset division charts showing various choices etc. Often the lawyers will have exchanged draft agreements as well. The parties' financial statements should be updated and exchanged too.

The purpose of a four way conference is to try and settle the case. Even if the case can't be settled at the four way, at least the parties and the attorneys may be able to narrow the issues they are arguing about. It is not uncommon to be able to resolve parenting issues and still be fighting about asset division or support.

This then sets the stage for the pretrial memo and the pretrial conference (to be discussed in future posts.)

Best,

Nancy
 

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Hi there,

It is exciting to see the New England states recognizing the fairness of allowing gay folks to marry. It is a huge step and where people can marry they also inevitably will pay taxes and some of them will later divorce.  In these areas much inequity still remains.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) impacts the income tax and divorce tax status of gay couples regardless of whether or not they are legally married.

They cannot file federal income taxes as married filing jointly; when, and if, they divorce any transfers of property between them are taxable events, as they are not for heterosexual couples, and there is no deduction for alimony.

All of these are costly, but still it is terrific to have another state recognize gay marriage.

Best,

Nancy

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