there are a lot of challenges to

succeeding with an appeal in a

Massachusetts divorce or probate and

family law case when you’re thinking

about appeals it’s important to start

with the understanding that only about

10 percent of appeals are successful in

all cases

and that percentage is probably equally

applicable to divorce and family law

cases what that means is that most

appeals are not going to succeed

that being said in Massachusetts we see

a higher degree of success on appeals

with complex Financial issues than we do

with some of the bread and butter issues

in a divorce such as child custody it is

quite rare to see a child custody

decision at the probate court level

reversed on appeal

it’s also quite rare to see the appeals

court reverse a division of assets

decision in which a judge is simply

allocating straightforward assets the

place where appeals are most often

successful in a Massachusetts divorce or

family law case are those involving

complex Financial issues where the judge

makes some era of law or some analytical

error that the appeals court can examine

and reverse as incorrect we also see a

fair number of reversals on contempt

cases because contempts involve a

heightened evidentiary standard that

requires clear and convincing evidence

of both a clear order and a clear

Disobedience because this evidentiary

standard requires a higher level of

evidence we do see more skepticism at

the appeals court when reviewing Probate

Court judgments of contempt