Mark R. Ashton (vaccinated) This week both the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times reported on a case in Chicago where a court decided whether a parent who was unvaccinated against COVID-19 could continue to visit with her 11-year-old child.  The judge initially ruled that visits would be suspended.  The news reports indicate that the subject arose during a remote (e.g. Zoom) hearing regarding child support.  Yesterday, it was reported that the judge had reversed…

Defined benefit pensions, the ones that payout monthly, are strange animals.  They are rare today except where unions and public agencies are found, and they can produce some odd results. Carl Jagnow married his wife Sharon in 1983.  They both taught school and both participated in the Public-School Employment Retirement System (PSERS).  Husband retired in 2003 because of health issues and he was eligible to put his retirement into pay status at age 55.  When…

This will not be a political piece.  There are enough of those.  But as just about everyone knows, on July 1 the New York attorney general and district attorney indicted both the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer on charges of income tax evasion.  The gravamen of the charges is that the Trump Organization assisted employees in evading income taxes by either paying bills for them or providing perquisites for which no income was…

We have written about 529 Plans a few times before.  The major points of those articles are: (a) 529 Plans are marital assets under Pennsylvania law; and, (b) 529 Plans can be UTMA (Uniform Transfer to Minor) Accounts in which case they are gifted property and outside the typical scope of marital assets. Another common problem encountered in the divorce process is a collection of unbalanced 529 plans.  Parties marry and have children. They begin…

The website MarketWatch publishes a kind of Dear Abby column related to family finances that touches on some very real subjects confronting families today.  On July 2, columnist Quentin Fottrell published a column in which a wife laments her husband’s spending habits and wonders whether she could be liable for his debts should he die. The wife professes that she loves her spouse, but they have completely different perspectives on how to spend money.  Husband…

For better or for worse, divorce lawyers get a front row seat to the home real estate market because their business often involves selling a family’s most prominent asset.  The last 12 months have made for an exciting game as home prices have hit seemingly impossible highs, driven by crazy low interest rates and a surge in demand that is not easily explained. Clients and realtors are reporting that homes are commanding multiple bids.  In…

On May 26, the Superior Court issued an en banc ruling addressing whether a Court can order a child custody litigant to turn over records of her treatment compiled in the context of a MHPA proceeding.  The unanimous decision of the nine-judge panel was that those records were not subject to disclosure. The opinion appears fairly definitive.  The Lackawanna County trial court was faced with allegations of a mother’s chronic instability in the context of…