I will tell you one of the reasons why you need an attorney in Massachusetts is that you never know what a court may do.  In Massachusetts a Probate Court Judge had ordered that a 32 year old Schizophrenic and Bi-polar woman under go an abortion and sterilization procedure.  The Probate Court Judge did the woman incompetent and she was asked by the parents counsel to have her abort the fetus. 

           The Judge in the case also ordered her to be sterilized, which according to the Appeals Court was produced out of thin air and that there was no request for sterilization.  Neither the Court Appointed Guardian nor the parents had requested this and there was no Finding of Fact.  It appeared to produce some inconsistencies and what it tells you is that the Appeals Court eventually over turned the Probate Court judge, but that it is important to have an attorney present; both at the trial level and the appeals level to make sure that some unconstitutional or due process violations occur.

           There are a variety of personal injury cases that you can file a law suit for where you might be entitled to damages and this is basically any time that you have been injured to someone else’s negligence. If you speak to a personal injury attorney, they can help you decide on whether you have a case, whether you can likely be able to win or not and what you can reasonably expect to get.

           Some of the time there are different reasons to file the personal injury case.  A common example is an automobile accident; where if you got hurt in an accident, that was not your fault and you can sue for damage. If the other driver was not insured and insurance company trivializes your damages or your claim there are a variety of options that you have.

As you may know, there is a new trial courthouse in Taunton and this newsletter will provide you with some helpful information about the courthouse.

The Elevator

The first thing that regulars at Taunton Court know is to avoid the elevator unless it is an emergency. There have been almost daily problems with the elevator, including people being stuck in it for long periods of time.

The short answer to this question is No. There has been a lot of talk back and forth about having changes to provide more consumer relief after the economic devastation to the working and middle class people, but so for in the Obama administration there has not been any actual changes at this point.  There is a great deal of law being on the behalf of banks and credit card companies over the consumers, but as of this point there is no change under the law.

           In a Chapter 7 a Bankruptcy Discharge basically releases the debtor from personal liability for a certain type of debt.  What that basically means is that the debtor is no longer required to pay any debt that is discharged.  The discharge is permanent and is prohibited to the creditors, whom taking any form of collection on the debt; including, legal actions, phone calls and so forth.

           Liens are important to discharge prior to the bankruptcy, because if you don’t, if it has not been avoided or made unenforceable, it can in fact remain after the bankruptcy case and the secure creditor can force the recovery of some of the property.

Here is helpful information on our Housing Court System:

BRISTOL COUNTY HOUSING COURT

            The Taunton Trial Court recently opened and it includes several different courts including, Taunton Juvenile Court, Taunton District Court, the Housing Court and a branch of the Bristol Probate and Family Court.  Here are some of the contact information:

Taunton District Court

The new, Massachusetts alimony law was signed by Governor Patrick on October 4, 2011 after winning approval in both the House and Senate. The changes establish guidelines for alimony payments and include limits on the duration of the payments. The new law essentially will eliminate lifetime alimony in many cases and will in part be determined by the length of the marriage.

The new law is a significant departure from current alimony practice and will have a dramatic impact on both parties to a divorce.
Some highlights of the new law include:

•    Indefinite alimony can still be awarded for long term marriages, defined as lasting twenty years or more.
•    Alimony for long term marriages will end when the payer’s spouse reaches retirement age, as defined by the Social Security Act.
•    For short term marriages lasting less than five years, alimony may not last longer than half of the number of months of the marriage.
•    With short term marriages judges can order “reimbursement alimony” if one party had put the other through school or job training.
•    For intermediate term marriages, defined as lasting longer than five years, but less than ten years, the maximum alimony term is 60% of the months of marriage.
•    For intermediate term marriages of more than ten years, but less than fifteen years, the maximum alimony term is 70% of the number of months of marriage.
•    For intermediate term marriages which are more than fifteen years, but last less than twenty years, the maximum alimony term is 80% of the duration of the marriage.
•    If the payer has remarried, the new spouse’s income and assets will be excluded from alimony determination and modification actions.
•    Cohabitation suspends, reduces, or even terminates alimony when it can be shown that the person who is receiving alimony has maintained a common house or has lived with another person for at least three months.
•    Child support payments will be factored into alimony and ---- (THIS IS CONFUSING!)
•    Alimony will be limited and should generally not exceed the needs of  the person receiving it, or 30% - 35% of the recipient’s (?) gross income, established at the time of the order.
•    A second income or income from overtime work will not be included when considering alimony modification and would be presumed to be immaterial to the alimony if the part worked more than a single full time equivalent and the second job or overtime commenced after the entry of the initial order.
•    Health and/or life insurance premium payments reduce alimony.
•    Alimony extensions will be limited.
•    Alimony will end at the remarriage of the recipient.

           A question I do get asked a reasonable amount of time, is can children be emancipated in Massachusetts?  What emancipation means is that the parents right to control his or her minor child or participate in that decision making and that the parents no longer have the right to determine where the child lives or goes to school or how to spend that child’s money.

           The parents would be relieved of certain responsibilities. Some of those might be not paying child support or responsible for the harm that the personal injuries that the child causes to another person, and no longer for being sued.  However, in Massachusetts there is NO formal procedure for a child to become emancipated from his/her parents. 

            What is an Annulment? An Annulment undoes a marriage by treating the couple as if a marriage did not even occurred. What that means, is that the party was not legally able to enter a party because that some reason that marriage would be considered void from the very beginning.

            For example, some of the reasons might be fraud, if the party was already married.  Annulments are generally not something that is granted easily by the court and the facts clearly have to show that the marriage was invalid.  If the marriage is void or nulled, the parties are not required to file for an Annulment, but to be on the safe side it’s highly recommended that you do.