Contempt is failing to follow a judge’s clear order even now you are able to do so, under the General Laws, Chapter 215, Section 34. You can see it under Larson v. Larson, which is 28 Mass.App.Ct. 338 1990 saying that a Contempt Action or law suit can be filed for violation of any of the court order.  For instance, you can file Contempt if your spouse has not paid child support. 

However, contempt actions are based on accusations that someone is not following the court’s direct order and the judges tend to feel that the authorities are being challenged in many ways will act accordingly.

In your Will you need to appoint someone who is going to carry out your wishes and that person is know as an Executor.  Some of the duties that person has to do after your death is that they collect your assets, pay your debt and expenses and then after that they will divide the remaining estates to the beneficiaries that you have listed.

It is important that your Executor be someone that is organized and understands numbers. If they understand financial matters and understands your family situation, that can provide a lot.  A lot of the time a family member or a friend is the person that is the Executor, but you can choose other people including banks can serve as an Executor or someone professionally.  You also have to realize that who you choose to be the Executor may refuse to do so.

Separate Support is a Court Ordered amount of support for your spouse. Generally, what you would do is that you would file something called “Separate Support” in Probate Court, even if you are not asking for divorce, but you want support even for yourself or for your children. It can also include, with a separate support action heath insurance for you and your children, payment of the children’s educational expenses and an Order for your spouse to vacate the home; Orders to convey the property to you; and restraining orders that protect you from abuse by your spouse. 

It is different though from a divorce, and then a divorce terminates the marriage, but Separate Support does not and a divorce makes a complete and final settlement of the marital property and liabilities; while Separate Support does not.

It is not very difficult to provide the lawyer information necessary to do a Will or a Last Will and Testament.  A lot of people put off making a Will, even though it provides a peace of mind because they think it is going to be complicated or difficult, but really they are just a handful of things you need to keep in mind when writing your Will.

You have to choose your Beneficiary; and that means who you want to designate to receive your property.  This can normally include your spouse, children, relatives, friend and you can choose to have a charity be the beneficiary.

Parents have constitutional protected rights regarding custody, care, and control of their children. In addition, it allows the parents right and freedom to expose their own particular religious beliefs.  There can be a lot of different issues if the interfaith spouse divorce and have disagreements over the religious upbringing of the children.

Some of the language is the “Ward” is the person who is under the “Guardianship” and generally there is a need for either physical or mental reasons that the person is incapable of managing his/her affairs either financial or personal or in many cases both. The Guardian is the person that the Probate Court manages the Wards person, making personal and health decisions also handles the Estate which the assets and income and most times both. The Court would list the authority.

A “Conservator” is authorized by the Probate Court to manage only the Wards estate, which is the assets and the income, but does not have the authority because they are also the Guardian to make health related or personal decisions for the Ward. 

The answer to this question is generally No. Under the bankruptcy code one of the reasons is that the credit card company can challenge the debt is if the person used the card for a reasonable of no expectation of repaying the debt. The second one is irrelevant, but uses the credit card to buy luxury items within 3 months of the bankruptcy. Therefore, it depends, but a short answer would be that I would be careful about using it; particularly, if the credit card company is able to show that you had no reasonable expectation in re-paying the debt. 

If you don’t have a Will, the government will assign one for you; and that means that the laws of Massachusetts will govern how your assets and estate are distributed and this can mean how you split it between your spouse, next of kin, children and that is the rules of the State rather than what you choose to do.  If you have your own Will there are a couple of big things that you can do with it.

1.                  1.  A key component is that you can appoint a Guardian for your children.  If you pass away without a Will, the State will decide who will care for your children; however, if you can nominate a Guardian for your children and your Will and make sure that they are looked after for someone that you love and trust.

Wills are generally the simplest way to override documents that give you the ability to distribute your estate and choose who your want your heirs to be, appoint a guardian and provide your belongings to who you choose.  A Will can be a part of an Estate Plan, but it is not necessarily an entire Estate Plan.

Generally, the more useful thing to do is have comprehensive Estate Plan that includes, not only your Last Will and Testament, but also a Power of Attorney, possibly an Advance Directive, a Health Care Proxy and it may include trusts for children, grandchildren and you might have a favorite charity and there are even Pet Trusts in Massachusetts.

The answer is, usually you can amend the Schedule to add an overlooked debt.  What happens is we file a Motion to Amend Schedule F and you would add the name of the Creditor and the amount of the debt. In addition, in some cases it actually is possible to re-open a bankruptcy after your debts have been discharged. Therefore, if you forgot to add a debt until after the discharge, you can possibly re-open the bankruptcy in order to add that. There are fees on these, so you have to make sure that it would be worth adding the debt.