Author Profile

Mark Ashton

Mark Ashton

Recent Articles

ARE PERSONAL INJURY CLAIMS MARITAL PROPERTY? AN OLD QUESTION REVISITED?

Mark Ashton
March 12, 2012 17:53

In a case decided late last year the Pennsylvania Supreme Court visited an old and persistently nagging question.  Are personal injury settlements marital property where the injury occurred before separation but the trial or settlement of the claim occurred afterward? In Focht v. Focht, the...

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH SUPPORTING AN IMMIGRANT SPOUSE?

Mark Ashton
March 09, 2012 14:04

In December, 2011 a panel of the Superior Court decided Love v. Love. 33 A.3d 1268 (2011). This was a Philadelphia County support action wherein Wife came to the United States with husband’s child.  The child was born in 2003.  The husband and wife married in 2005 and the...

CASE SCHILLER BRINGS BAD NEWS FOR HOMEOWNERS

Mark Ashton
March 05, 2012 17:28

The 2011 numbers are in an homes in America lost another 4% of their value last year. Add the rate of inflation for 2011 to that and the number comes to 7.16%. If you are settling your divorce premised upon a recovery of housing prices it would appear that despite a horrid second and third...

SUPERIOR COURT CLARIFIES WHAT MATERIAL CAN BE SECURED FROM AN EXPERT WITNESS FILE

Mark Ashton
December 07, 2011 13:44

As lawyers we are commonly asked to forecast judicial outcomes.  What will a court do given a stated set of facts?  Of course, it is rare for facts to be the same in the eyes of two adverse parties but even when the facts are agreed, lawyers and judges sometimes cannot agree on the law....

EBLASTER APPEARS TO GET BLASTED IN A DELAWARE COUNTY CASE

Mark Ashton
October 20, 2011 15:37

We tend to think that the use of computer software available on the internet could not possibly result in criminal charges brought against the party using it.  But on Friday October 7 a Court in Delaware County found a man guilty of using Eblaster “spyware” to intercept his...