Monthly Archives: February 2010

Collaborative Divorce, Divorce Mediation Provides More Lasting Benefits, by Steve McDonough, Esq.

Turn marital conflict into lasting solutions If someone casually approached you at the mall and asked you if you preferred dispute resolution or conflict resolution, how might you answer? Probably something like “get away from me you big weirdo!” It is an interesting question however, and one I never quite considered in the way described in an interesting article by Seattle, WA collaborative divorce lawyer J. Mark Weiss concerning the differences between dispute resolution and conflict resolution.  The article, posted on Mark’s blog, is a reminder about the differences between just getting through your divorce, versus actually resolving some of the [...]

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Reduce Your Massachusetts Divorce Legal Fees

I have yet to meet a client who is excited about paying lots of money for their Massachusetts divorce.  If you are one, please call me right away! As consumers, we like to know how much something will cost.  It is difficult to plan otherwise.  Let’s compare divorce legal fees to another relatively unpleasant task – car shopping: Chuck, a Car Shopper:   “So, how much will this car cost me?” Salesperson:  ”Well, tough to say.  Could be $30,000.00.  But it could be a lot more.” Chuck: “Why is that?” Salesperson:  ”Well, there are a lot of variables.  I am [...]

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What Do We Make? by Steve McDonough, Esq.

I was watching television earlier  tonight  - on Valentine’s night as a matter of fact – and saw a commercial for BMW automobiles.  It was a fairly long spot during the olympics, right after I decided that I will never try skiing moguls. I don’t even think I would want to walk on them.  The announcer on the commercial mentioned that of course BMW makes cars, but what they really make is joy. The ad showed lots of pictures of happy people in BMWs.  I thought it was a good commercial, and then wondered as a divorce lawyer and mediator, [...]

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Valuation Issues Surrounding Professional Practices at Divorce, by Steve McDonough, Esq.

When a divorcing spouse owns a business, several  factors must be examined as part of the distribution of the marital estate.  The type of business entity in question will obviously play a major role in how the business asset will be valued. One type of business that provides special challenges to an appraiser and the attorneys on the case is a professional practice, such as a medical practice or law firm. A professional practice is considered by the court (at least here in Massachusetts) as subject to division as part of the marital estate during the divorce process. See Goldman [...]

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The Seminar scheduled for February 10, 2010 has been cancelled due to weather!

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Where’s Steve-O? by Steve McDonough, Esq.

Well, first I would like to report that I have not been living in District 9 with the alien prawns or anything like that.  It has been quite sometime since my last post, and I apologize to my readers – both of them (just kidding).  Although not much blogging has been going on, plenty of other good stuff has been, including: The Divorce Collaborative LLC expanded in January, and has moved to the top floor of the Law & Financial Center at 77 Main St. in Medway, MA.  This is the same location we have been in, we just moved [...]

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