Valuation Resources for Family Law

Representing clients in a divorce case in which the value of the couple’s business assets is at issue can be challenging. In order to reach a fair resolution the attorneys must have a grasp of the standards and methods of determining the value of companies, stock, and partnership interests, the discovery techniques used to obtain vital information and effective ways of presenting evidence. Join us for a CLE on this topic on 10/27 and check out our resources in our collection. Read Full Article

TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule Implementation

This October the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will replace the four existing disclosures required in most residential mortgage transactions under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) with two new ones. The Good Faith Estimate and Early Truth in Lending forms will be replaced by the Loan Estimate and the HUD-1 settlement statement and the Final Truth-in-Lending disclosure will be replaced by the Closing Disclosure. . . Read Full Article

From the Collection: Massachusetts Evidence Resources

Unlike the Federal Courts, Massachusetts has no “Rules of Evidence” – there is no set of codified rules that have been adopted by the legislature and the courts. Instead, the admission of facts is governed by the common law. Luckily for practitioners, there are a number of resources in our collection that provide solid overviews of Massachusetts evidentiary law. . . Read Full Article

USING FASTCASE: RUNNING YOUR SEARCH, USING YOUR RESULTS LIST by Charles J. Lowry

You may choose your jurisdictions one of two ways, either as general categories or as specific jurisdictions. To choose general jurisdictional categories, just check the radio button next to that category, e.g. All Jurisdictions or All Federal Appellate. To limit your results to cases from specific jurisdictions, use the Individual Jurisdictions radio button and check marks to choose as many or as few, jurisdictions as you wish from the categories. Feel free to mix and match... Read Full Article

Massachusetts Alimony Reform

Since the passage of the Alimony Reform Act of 2011, the Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court have decided over thirty cases interpreting the law, providing a rapidly expanding body of case law on the subject. The Social Law Library will be co-sponsoring an in-depth review of these cases in the upcoming seminar Alimony Reform on Appeal: Learn From the Experts on May 28, 2015 at 4PM. For those looking for more information on alimony in Massachusetts in the meantime, we have also put together a list of resources that you can find at the library . . . Read Full Article