Just about every divorce case involves a house and its corresponding mortgage. In a small number of cases parties agree that dissolution of the marriage is also an opportune time to downsize the residence, but in most situations, at least one of the parties wants to keep the residence, even if just, “for a while.”
Family Law
Take “CARES” When Reviewing 2020 Business Returns
By Mark Ashton on
It has been a very long, if not a very good year. We noted in an earlier post that one of the challenges reserved for 2021 would be to see how the IRS would address the dischargeable loans granted to hundreds of thousands of businesses under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Recall that those who…
COVID CRAZY TRAVEL
By Mark Ashton on
Imagine being a kid; any age over four. Unless you are well north of age 100, you have never seen anything like this. Adults fighting about everything and demonstrating some levels of rudeness not seen since the school bussing controversy in the 1970s where people fought in the streets over whether or how to promote…
Are You a Facebook Cybercriminal?
By Mark Ashton on
Posted in criminal law, Family Law
Family law blogs are usually not fertile grounds to write about criminal law. Yet even family lawyers are not immune from situations where our specialty crosses paths with the dark side. We have previously written about Pennsylvania’s tightly wound wiretap law, which requires that both parties consent before sound is electronically recorded. Failure to get…
FAMILY PROBLEMS ARE THE PROBLEMS. POLITICS ARE BUT A DIVERSION.
By Mark Ashton on
If you were home last week or this week, the television screen has lit up with some of the most rancorous debate I have seen in my lifetime. This is saying something because I was around for the summer of 1968 when the world watched assassins, protesters and rioters really start to take America apart. …
AN IMPORTANT, ALBEIT NON-PRECEDENTIAL ADDITION TO RELOCATION LAW
By Mark Ashton on
Since 2011, we have had a statute setting forth both a procedure and a judicial standard for the determination of requests to relocate with a child. We have previously observed that the appellate decisions coming both before and after enactment of 23 Pa.C.S. 5337 have made relocation a rocky road. However, a panel decision issued…
BUSINESS VALUATION & THE COVID PARADOX
By Mark Ashton on
As I write this, the Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve System has just announced their forecast that second quarter gross domestic product is expected to plummet 53%; a harrowing statistic. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index sits at 3,055. That’s where it was on March 5 of this year, at which time, there were fewer…
Coronavirus & “The King’s Frustration”
By Mark Ashton on
Experienced family lawyers know that they often become a kind of general counsel to their clients. Family law is in no small measure closely related to contract law. In a state that has seen a shut down order issued for all but essential services, there are many contracts, which have been rendered impractical or frustrated…
TIME TO HIT THE “PAUSE” BUTTON
By Mark Ashton on
Posted in Custody, Family Law
I’m not going to refer to “it”. I have read a hundred emails in the past few days referring to “it.” “It” is frightening for all of us. “It” is affecting every aspect of our life. It is coming across my desk as fear for future financial security. It is also causing people to fight…
GRANT OF THIRD PARTY STANDING IS NOT APPEALABLE AS A COLLATERAL ORDER.
By Mark Ashton on
It comes in a non-precedential decision but the ruling is important nonetheless. In a panel opinion authored by Judge Daniel McCaffery and published on March 2, 2020, the Superior Court held that a decision of a Crawford County judge to allow a paternal grandmother to intervene in a child custody proceeding was not appealable as…