447.03
February 15, 2025
For All Users
- Access to files. Previously, if you closed a browser tab in which you were using Family Law Software, and then opened another one, the software would think you were still working in the previous (now closed) tab. To prevent collisions, it would lock you out of the file for ten minutes. Now, the software knows that you closed the previous tab, and it lets you right in to the file you were working on.
- Speedier refresh. When you click one checkbox in a pair, the other de-selects. When you enter a number of overnights for one parent, the other parent’s overnights update to match the remainder of the year. Recently, this refresh had slowed down. We have found and fixed the issue, and refresh has returned to normal.
- Client files. We have continued fixing small things relating to creating and sharing client files. We worked on improving situations where paralegals are creating new files and on situations where file access is removed or switched to another person.
- Monthly rate updates. We updated the default mortgage interest rate and default interest rate for defined benefit pensions. These rates are used if you do not enter actual rates for mortgage interest and pension discount rates, respectively.
- Annual update of poverty guidelines. The federal poverty guidelines are used in several places in the software, typically to help set the “self support reserve” for states’ child support guidelines. These are updated annually. We made the updates for 2025.
- Multiple states. We updated the help text that appears when you are entering the state where the party lives, to explain what to do in situations where a party pays tax in two states. (Typically, you enter the state of primary residence, and there is nothing else to do.)
State Specific
California
- Judicial Council Form MC-050 – Substitution of Attorney – Civil (Without Court Order). The case name and number were not carrying to the form. That is now fixed.
Connecticut
- Cell phone. It is now the case that if the client has a cell phone but not a landline, that the cell phone number will carry to the Affidavit.
Florida
- Mortgage “TBD.” If you enter special text such as “TBD” for mortgage payments, this special text now carries to the Affidavit.
Michigan
- Minimum Wage. The minimum wage is the default hourly payment amount if you choose to enter wages on an hourly basis. We have updated the Michigan minimum wage to the February 2025 level.
New Jersey
- Client data entry. We have added the phone number as a field for clients to enter in the client data entry.
447.02
February 4, 2025
For All Users
- Budget Report Real Estate Expenses. There is a small number of expenses that in some states are considered real estate expenses, and in other states are not. Examples include phone and Internet expenses. In those states, we were sometimes omitting the expense from the Budget Report if it was not considered a real estate expense for that state. That is now fixed.
- Budget Report Write-In Descriptions. On lines where the user is able to “add another” expense, for the expense description, we were looking solely to the expense description entered for the first party. Now, we are also looking to the expense description entered for the second party.
- Arrears. The arrears obligation detailed calculation was not applying grace period. If the statute so requires, we now apply a 30 day grace period to the initial payment. This applies in Illinois and Texas.
- Desktop. In the desktop software, we made small text changes to text to clarify “Send Back” interactions with File Manager in desktop software. We attempted to clarify that if a file is locked using the File Manager in the cloud, then the file will not appear in the list of client files that may be downloaded. Similarly, the Send Back button will not work in that situation.
- FLS Alimony Formula. Family Law Software features a proprietary calculator for alimony that incorporates the best features of a variety of online calculators. We have now made it easier to change the percentages of incomes of the parties that are applied.
- File Manager. We implemented several fixes to remove problems and make usage of File Manager smoother. Sometimes buttons could be clicked twice, which was resulting in problems. Also, it is now possible to have a client transition smoothly to a different professional.
State Specific
California
- Judicial Council Forms. We updated FL-105, FL-105(A), FL-300, and FL-300-INFO.
- Child Support What If. If you have manually entered spousal support in one scenario, the amount was being deleted if you specified to calculate spousal support in another scenario. This is now fixed.
- Update 2024 California tax numbers/California certification
Colorado
- Court Address. We have updated the address of the Moffat Combined Court.
Illinois
- Child support what if. In the child support what if scenarios, it is now possible to manually enter maintenance for a scenario.
- Child support What If. If you have manually entered spousal support in one scenario, the amount was being deleted if you specified to calculate spousal support in another scenario. This is now fixed.
- The arrears obligation detailed calculation was not applying grace period. We now apply a 30 day grace period to the initial payment.
Texas
- The arrears obligation detailed calculation was not applying grace period. We now apply a 30 day grace period to the initial payment.
Washington
- PFML. We now include a calculation of PFML (“Paid Family and Medical Leave”) premiums in the child support calculation. This will slightly decrease the income of the wage earner. The wage earner is the paying party, it will slightly decrease the amount of child support calculated.
447.01
January 15, 2025
For all users
- Minimum Wage. We updated to the current 2025 minimum wage rates in all states. This is the rate that appears by default when, in the wages section, you specify an hourly wage rate.
- Uniform Order of Support. We have made line 8 — the bottom line — on Uniform Order of Support a decimal, so users can enter pennies.
- Tax Exemptions. For children not of the current relationship, if “alternating” is selected as the exemption schedule, then the party will get the exemption in alternating years. This had not been working for children of other relationships.
- Spousal support deductibility. We now default that spousal support paid on account of a prior relationship is not tax deductible.
- “Draft” banner. The “draft” banner option now will not affect future cases. Previously, once it was turned on, all pages printed as “Draft” until it was turned off. You can find the “Draft” banner where you print your financial forms.
- User Id. We changed the nomenclature of “professional id” to “user id” everywhere. This better reflects current usage and understanding.
State specific
California
- Links to court information. We have made it easier to click to the court information when you are entering information about the case.
- Low-income adjustment. We updated the 2025 California low-income adjustment threshold. This will have a very slight impact on the California child support guideline calculation for low-income parties.
- California Child Support – combine short-term capital gain with interest so it carries to Budget Report
Colorado
- Eligible age. We have added the “eligible age” column at the top level for “other” children.
- Links to court information. We have made it easier to click to the court information when you are entering information about the case.
Florida
- Arrears. We have updated to the January 2025 Florida arrears rate
Illinois
- Child Support Guideline Worksheet. We now have text that alerts you when the start year is more than a year before maintenance starts.
- Savings line on Financial Affidavit. We added a “Savings” line for the Financial Affidavit that does not carry to the cash flow projections
New Jersey
- New Jersey W-4 Worksheet. We now prevent line 1i from going negative. It can calculate to zero, but not less.
- Income data entry. We clarified the entry of year-to-date income. Now, when you select an option, the line items for the other option disappear. This should make the entry more clear.
- W-4. We updated the W-4 for 2025.
Ohio
- Ohio affidavit. The plaintiff should now appear on the left regardless of whose affidavit it is.
446.27
November 21, 2024
For all users:
State specific:
California
- We implemented the California Pass-Through Entity Tax. You enter this as an adjustment to income. It will appear as income, and as a credit against taxes, on the California state income tax page.
- California FL-150 add text that was missing below line 1.
Georgia
- Remove extra quotation marks on Georgia Print Guideline screen.
Michigan
- Fixed a typo on the parenting time adjustment worksheet.
Minnesota
- Fixed a typo on the parenting time adjustment worksheet.
Ohio
- Worked on bringing our Child Support Guideline closer to the official, work in progress.
446.26
November 14, 2024
Below are the features, bug fixes and enhancements released in the last month for Family Law Software.
For all Subscribers
- Multiple income sources for a single investment asset. Previously, if you had a brokerage account that reported interest, dividend, and capital gain income, you had to enter that as three separate accounts, and it was difficult to know the asset amount that should be apportioned to each account. In this release, it is now possible to enter interest, dividend, and capital gain income for a single account. This is a significant improvement.
- Standardize calculation of income after-tax. The Budget Report, Support Impact Report and Expanded Report all have calculations of “income after tax.” Previously, however, for historical reasons, the calculation for the Budget Report was not always in sync with the calculation for the other reports. It is now the case that a single definition of “income after tax” is used for all reports.
- Customize definition of income after tax. Previously, the definition of “income after tax” was hard-coded to be income minus taxes, mandatory retirement payments, and union dues. Some people wanted to include items such as health insurance and child-care costs in the calculation. Other people wanted to exclude items such as union dues. Now, you can customize the definition of “income after tax” for each case.
- New stock option/RSU report. We are gratified by the positive reception from many of our subscribers to the ability to enter restricted stock units (RSUs) and stock options, and the ability to calculate the marital portion. This release adds to that the ability to show stock options and RSUs on a separate standalone report. This is on the More Reports page in the Financial Planner report list.
- New logo. We have incorporated a new logo in the software. We hope you like it!
State-specific
The following items are specific to the states listed below.
California
- Pass through entity tax. We have incorporated California’s pass-through entity tax into our California tax calculation, so that it is reflected in guideline income.New Judicial Council form. We have added the POS-050/EFS-050 to our list of Judicial Council forms.
- Form updated. We have updated the Riverside Form
- RI-A836B to the most recent version.
Colorado
- Update to JDF-1104. We have updated Colorado Form JDF 1104 to the 10/24/2023 release version (the most recent version).
Florida
- New “Totals” note field. On the Income & Expenses data entry screen, we have added a “Note” field to the Totals group. Now, if you would like to include on the Affidavit a note that pertains to the Income and Expenses as a whole, and not to a specific item, you can now do that.
Massachusetts
- Health insurance data carry. We fixed an issue where the health insurance provider entered for Party A was carrying to Party B’s Financial Statement. That is no longer happening.
Minnesota
- We have incorporated into the software the recently-released updated Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program Copayment schedules.
New Jersey
- We have updated the New Jersey Confidential Litigant Information Sheet to the November 2024 version.
446.25
October 15, 2024
For all users
- Spousal support. In states where spousal support is calculated, when the checkbox to use calculated spousal support is cleared, we now also clear the spousal support amount.
- American Opportunity Tax Credit. For years after 2017, it is now possible to specify that the American Opportunity Tax Credit is refundable.
State specific
California
- Judicial Council Forms. We updated Riverside RI-FL042 to the latest release.
- Tax tables. We updated our tax tables to current-year California taxes. (The state does not release current-year tax tables until September or October each year.)
- Spousal Support. For California, child support was being calculated treating current-relationship spousal support as taxable/tax deductible. We now reflect the entry to this effect which could cause it to be treated as non-taxable.
- California bonus report. Upon exiting the bonus report, actual support was changed. Upon the next entry, the correct amount was reinstated. But now, this does not happen at all.
Colorado
- Child Support. The Colorado Judicial council requested a change in the calculation of adjustment for certain children of other relationships. We have implemented this request.
- Bonus report. We now allow “Unknown,” etc. on bonus report fields.
Florida
- Support what if. Changing the alimony payer in the Child Support What If screen will now trigger an update of the child support calculation.
Illinois
- Insurance. On the Illinois Affidavit, we now allow an entry in the “Type of Insurance” boxes when someone other than party pays cost of insurance.
New Jersey
- Case Management Order. We updated the New Jersey Case Management Order to the latest release.
New York
- Real Estate. In New York, a new file was automatically entering a real estate property. That no longer happens.