Hingham, MA family law attorney Jason V. Owens discusses how often appeals succeed in MA divorce and probate court cases. He points out that succeeding on an appeal in a Massachusetts divorce or Probate and Family Court case is challenging. Only about 10 percent of appeals are successful across all case types, and that figure generally holds true for divorce and family law cases as well. This means that most appeals are unlikely to succeed.

That said, appeals involving complex financial issues tend to have a higher likelihood of success than more routine matters. For example, child custody decisions at the Probate Court level are rarely reversed on appeal, and straightforward asset division decisions are seldom overturned. Appeals are most often successful in cases with complex financial matters where the judge has made a legal or analytical error that the Appeals Court can identify and correct.

He also notes that a fair number of contempt cases are reversed on appeal. Contempt judgments require clear and convincing evidence of both a clear order and intentional disobedience. Because of this heightened evidentiary standard, the Appeals Court tends to scrutinize Probate Court contempt findings more closely, resulting in a higher rate of reversals in these cases.