The Supreme Court addressed three issues: whether the circuit court erred in modifying the original maintenance award; whether the failure to name an attorney with an enforceable attorney’s fees award is fatal to an appeal; and whether the attorney’s fee award was proper.Read More

James Eric Bankston v. Jennifer S. Mattingly, No. 2021-CA-1490-MR Marion Circuit Court Mom and Dad, joint custodians of one child, disagreed on who should be permitted to claim Child for tax purposes. Dad – who had a significantly higher income than Mom – motioned the Circuit Court to claim Child each year pursuant to 26...Read More

YVONNE M. CENTA v. WILLIAM E. LINDSEY, NO. 14-CI-00123OLDHAM FAMILY COURTWife appealed from an order of the Oldham Family Court terminating Husband’s maintenance obligations because the parties’ decree – entered in 2016 – specified that maintenance would terminate upon Wife’s cohabitation. Husband filed a motion requesting the court terminate his maintenance obligation due to Wife’s...Read More

Less Than Custody But Better Than Nothing? Guardianship is a term that is commonly used, but generally misunderstood. Guardianship and custody are NOT the same from a legal perspective. Parents have a superior right to custody, and have a higher level of rights than what guardianship provides. Guardianship may be used if both parents are...Read More

When planning for divorce, it is important to consider the tax implications that many decisions made during your divorce may have. One important factor to consider is how the tax code treats spousal support payments made from one spouse to the other. If your divorce decree was entered before December 31, 2018, the support payor...Read More

Normandin v. Normandin Questions Presented: Marital Dissolution. Restricted Stock Units. Trial court improperly classified restricted stock units (RSUs) as entirely nonmarital property. To appropriately classify such assets the trial court applies a presumption that the RSUs are earned over the period between grant and vesting, and the proportion of RSUs acquired for purposes of marital...Read More

The Court of Appeals held that the maintenance obligation ceasing once Wife “is of the age to receive Social Security” is arbitrary, because there was no evidence submitted regarding when that would occur or how much Wife would be eligible to receive.Read More

One question that frequently arises in the context of divorce is whether one spouse may claim rights to another spouse’s inheritance that was acquired either before or during the marriage. At divorce, property is classified as either marital or nonmarital. Nonmarital property is restored to each spouse as his or her separate property and marital...Read More

It is not uncommon to worry that your partner might begin hiding assets, or even “innocuously” misplacing or moving assets, during the divorce process. You should always bring this concern up to your attorney.Read More

Andrews v. Andrews Fayette County Circuit Court The parties were divorced in 2015, and their settlement agreement was incorporated into the decree of dissolution. The settlement agreement provided that Husband would pay Wife $4,000 per month in maintenance. Husband unilaterally reduced his payments to $1,000 after a decrease in his pay. Wife filed a motion...Read More