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Bad conduct and marital estate in MA divorce

I read in your other that the conduct of the married couple during their marriage can have some impact on the eventual split of the marital estate. So I'm wondering how bad the behavior has to be for a judge to really nail my soon to be ex husband. I'll spare you the details, but they aren't pretty and I don't see why he should get half of everything. Thanks for any help

Division of assets in divorce

Yes, as you know, in a contested divorce, the judge may consider the conduct of the parties in making a division of the marital assets.  However, as I'm sure you also know, each case, and each judge is different.  If you're interested in some research on this issue, and enjoy black humor, you might want to go to Lexis and read this case: Wolcott v. Wolcott, 2011 Mass.App LEXIS 16 (January 6, 2011).

In the Walcott case, the judge had to decide how to divide the marital assets where the wife's behavior was very bad indeed.  Among other things, Mrs. Wolcott had an affair, spent the couple's money with reckless abandoned, and apparently tried to kill her husband, first by getting him drunk and "causing him" to fall off a boat and then by investigating the availability of hit men.  The judge awarded the lovely lady 10% of the marital estate and an appeals court upheld the division.

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