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When business owners get divorced, their settlement may have profound consequences for the business and other owners. Often, one spouse “sells” or gives up a share of the business to the other spouse. Since most small business owners do not have enough cash to pay a lump sum for that share, they might have to make installment payments over months or years. It is critical to structure the divorce settlement […]

Recently in one of my cases (several, actually), I have encountered complex issues involving military retirement benefits for retired servicemembers. Fortunately, there is a lot of information out there, from the Department of Defense website to MOAA to Military.com. One of the best (read: most understandable) resources is a book published in 2006 by the American Bar Association, entitled “The Military Divorce Handbook.” For years it has sat on my […]

One of the most-respected judges to sit in Family Division here in Allegheny County, Hon. Eugene B. Strassburger, Jr., recently ascended to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. His first published opinion in a Family Division matter was released this month, demonstrating remarkable judicial restraint. In BJD v. DLC, 2011 Pa.Super. 74 (April 11, 2011), Judge Strassburger considered a custody case in which both parents and their child had moved away […]

In Kent v. Kent (March 18, 2011), the Superior Court of Pennsylvania rejected a parent’s argument that she should be entitled to collect alimony for a period of eleven years so that she could continue to homeschool the parties’ minor children. It was undisputed in this case that the mother had withdrawn from the workforce five years earlier in order to home-school the parties’ children, which she continued to do up […]

The initial weeks of a marital separation are probably the most turbulent, uncertain part of the divorce process. The first few choices that spouses must make when they are contemplating divorce are important legal strategy decisions that require thoughtful consideration. Your divorce lawyer can help to assess the risks and possible consequences of those initial decisions. 1.   Move out or stay put? Pennsylvania doesn’t recognize a legal separation as some […]

A recent decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals illustrates the perils of reliance upon industry rules of thumb to value a business in matrimonial litigation. In Marriage of Hagar (11/24/2010), husband and wife purchased a dry cleaning business from a trust established by husband’s parents as part of a business succession plan. Husband and wife agreed to a $300,000 purchase price that was determined by the companies’ accountant. The trust […]