Alimony Reform and the Business of Divorce

The Boston Business Journal continues to cover the controversy over the competing Massachusetts alimony bills, and in Friday's article by Lisa van der Pool, Dueling alimony bills raise hackles in legal circles, the focus was on the question of whether Senator Cynthia Creem, chair of the Senate's Judiciary Committee, has a "conflict of interest" on account of her sponsorship of the alimony reform

Is Family Law a Masterful Scam? A Criminal Enterprise?

I thought I would reprint my response to a comment on my last post, which was on the issue of alimony reform, as I believe it deserves its own post here. Over the years, I have found some people to be so angry and bitter, after going through difficult experiences in the family law system, that they lose all sense of reality and become paranoid. I have thought about this again recently after

Of Two Alimony Reform Bills, House Bill is Far Better

There are two competing alimony reform bills currently pending in the Massachusetts legislature: Senate Bill 1616 and House Bill 1785. The Senate bill, backed by influential members of the Boston Bar Association, essentially would preserve the status quo. It would merely add language to the statute so as to give judges the explicit ability to set a duration for alimony - i.e. to set a term of

Corri Fetman, of Sleazy Divorce Ad Fame, Sues Playboy

Thanks to John Bolch at the blog Family Lore, for the news that former divorce attorney, turned Playboy columnist, Corri Fetman, is no longer writing the "Lawyer of Love" column for the magazine, and is instead suing the magazine for sexual harassment, claiming over $4.5 million in damages for "gender violence" and emotional distress. You may recall that she became famous, and got her position at

Best Divorce Cartoon

A colleague, who happens to be a psychotherapist and not a lawyer, just gave me a copy of the following New Yorker Divorce Cartoon a few days ago. The cartoon is very good and to publish it here I would have to pay more than I am willing to pay for the license, so if you want to see it, you will have to follow my link. But I may have to order a print of this myself.The cartoon, by Mick Stevens

A Fool for a Client? More on DIY Divorce

Now it is often said that he who represents himself has a fool for a client. But is that always true? When something very important is at stake, the answer is usually yes.However, I was just quoted in today's Boston Globe, by relationship columnist Meredith Goldstein, in her short piece DIY divorce: Is it a good idea? - The Boston Globe. I appear in the article as the attorney who surprised

Crockefeller, His Lawyer, and the Media

As I previously stated here right after "Clark Rockefeller" was arrested, there's got to be more to the weird story of Crockefeller and Snooks, and we're bound to hear more soon. Well we have now heard quite a bit more, and even some from Crockefeller's own lawyer.The Boston Globe had an article in today's paper, Lone defender savors high-profile case - by Jonathan Saltzman, about Crockefeller

YouTube Divorce - A Failed Strategy

To follow up on the YouTube Divorce of Tricia Walsh-Smith, which I discussed here this past April (after which Tricia continued her tirades and crazy antics on YouTube, all of which I ignored), it appears that Tricia's adventurous approach to fighting her contested divorce has not helped her one bit. Back in April, I thought Tricia had the craziness out of her system, as she appeared to have

How Can You Stand It In Family Court?

As a divorce attorney, I sometimes ask myself, and I am sometimes asked by my clients, this very good question: How can you do this family law litigation every day?Shortly after I read John Bolch's recent Family Lore entry posing this question, I found myself outside a divorce courtroom and suddenly called a "douchebag" by an irate husband. He called me this in the presence of his own lawyer and

Lawyers Are Good Doobies

Legal Blog Watch recently took note of the fact that about 350 lawyers, a majority of them family law attorneys, in West Texas have volunteered to represent, without any compensation, the 400 children taken by the state in its raid on the polygamist religious sect. Yes, it's true. Many lawyers are good doobies.

Divorce By YouTube

Wow! Recently we had a disgruntled husband in Vermont airing dirty divorce laundry on his blog (see my posts here and there). Now a disgruntled wife in New York has broadcast her grievances on YouTube (see below). This YouTube video has been widely viewed, and has been widely reported and blogged about already. See Family Lore and New York Divorce Report for some good posts on this.This

Britney to Pay $400K to Various Lawyers

People Magazine reports that Britney Spears was just ordered to pay $400,000 to several lawyers working in various ways to manage the never-ending Britney Disaster. For information about Massachusetts divorce and family law, see the divorce and family law page of my law firm website.

Professional Women More Likely to Get Divorced

Women with MBAs, medical degrees and law degrees are much more likely to get divorced or separated than their male counterparts, according to Robin Fretwell Wilson, a professor at Washington & Lee Law School, and a study she will be publishing next week. Her study is apparently based upon her analysis of a National Science Foundation survey of over one hundred thousand professionals.Although it

New England Law Schools, As Ranked By US News & World Report

Now that the entire list and rankings have been officially released by US News and World Report, I am hereby updating and supplementing my recent post on Massachusetts law school rankings. By extracting information from the latest US News rankings I came up with the following list, with relative rank or position, of all ABA-accredited law schools in the New England states:TOP LAW SCHOOLS (top 104

New US News Law School Rankings: Four In Massachusetts Among Top 100

The blog Above the Law has announced the prematurely leaked US News and World Report "2009" rankings of American law schools, set to be released officially this Friday. You can see the first page, showing the top 100 of the nation's 184 American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law schools ranked by the magazine here.As usual, the three top-tier law schools in Massachusetts continue to rank in

Mills McCartney Judgment Now Published in Full

As just reported by the British family law blog Pink Tape (Mills McCartney Award Announced - and Judgment published in full « Pink Tape), the McCartney-Mills divorce judgment has now been published in full, after Heather Mills' application for leave to appeal (in order precisely to prevent the entire judgment from being published) was denied. The entire judgment can be found here. See the video

Britney Spears Ordered to Pay $375K of K-Fed's Legal Fees

Following up on my previous post about lawyers for Britney Spears and Kevin Federline arguing in court over whether, and how much, Britney should pay for K-Fed's legal fees in their ongoing custody battle, I now pass on the news that the California court commissioner on the case yesterday decided that Spears Must Pay $375,000 for K-Fed Fees, according to the Associated Press ("Britney Spears was

Lawyers for Britney and Kevin Rack Up More Fees Arguing About Who Has To Pay Them

In Hollywood News, this past weekend Britney's ex Kevin Federline played golf with Britney's dad Jamie, and then on Monday (yesterday), Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's lawyers argued again in court about who has to pay K-Fed's legal fees in their ongoing custody case. It's not fair that K-Fed's lawyers are increasing their rate to $600/hour, says Britney's $700/hour lawyer. Blah, blah, blah.

Shared Parenting Bill: Some Responses to the Boston Globe

Just a bit more on the issue of shared parenting presumptions, the shared parenting bill, and the Boston Globe's recent editorial, which I criticized the other day here. In the following two letters to the editor, Paul Sawyer of Westford and Donald Miller of Boston both made some very good points. I especially like Donald Miller's analysis, which is in most respects just a more concise, and

Racy Divorce Lawyer Corri Fetman Takes it Up a Notch...And Takes it Off!

You may think personal injury lawyers have the most tasteless lawyer ads. But one divorce law firm out of Chicago, may have hit a new low in our profession last spring, with billboards like the one you see here. And now, one of the attorneys behind that ad campaign, Attorney Corri Fetman, has admitted she was actually the woman who is featured in this billboard and in the other controversial ads