Can I Modify the Terms of My Divorce Agreement in Massachusetts?

Divorce agreements are often in need of change as time goes along. People’s lives change, their needs change, their incomes change, and their schedules change. A typical reason that a divorce agreement might be modified is because the parenting schedule has to change, i.e., if someone’s work schedule changed, or the child support needs to be adjusted because someone has an increase in income or because one party becomes unemployed.

The one thing though that does not change in a divorce agreement is the division of the assets and liabilities.  That is considered non-modifiable by the court, except in rare circumstances. Each party is entitled to know that whatever they receive for the asset and debt allocation is something they can rely upon and move forward toward their future. The child related provisions do change and those are always modifiable because the court wants to be able to take control of anything related to the children. So in every divorce agreement, we designate what is modifiable and what is not modifiable. For instance, the asset division and the debt division is considered to survive the entry of the divorce judgment. Survival means that it does not get modified.  If a term merges in a divorce agreement that means that it is modifiable and subject to modification by the court.

This informational blog post was brought to you by Cynthia L. Hanley, an experienced Mansfield, Massachusetts Divorce Lawyer.