What you were used to: Is that still applicable post-divorce?

We suspect that many of our readers across Massachusetts occasionally see divorce-linked articles in the media that centrally focus upon some opulence-related tangent.

That is, tabloid offerings definitely tend to stress what might reasonably strike many people as being the outsized demands of one divorcing spouse relating to things that are ostensibly needed following dissolution.

For example, a soon-to-be ex-partner in a high-asset decoupling will often insist that the same upscale lifestyle — maids, chauffeurs, vacations, multiple residences and so forth — persist after a divorce decree is inked.

Of course, the demands will vary in size, scope and type depending on the financial realities at work in a given marriage. What is deemed “luxury” in one case is fact-specific.

And, in fact, courts do evaluate the type of lifestyle enjoyed by a party throughout married life, construing it as relevant in an equitable division of assets and regarding the kind of life that a divorcing individual can reasonably expect to live.

And that is true with every marriage. It obviously holds that the dissolving marriages of billionaires garner the most tabloid ink in that regard, but the principle is the same regardless of wealth.

For most of us, obviously, yachts and multiple mansions are not in play during the divorce process. Notwithstanding that, though, divorcing parties often have an expectation of living post-divorce in a manner similar to what they did while married, to the degree that doing so is reasonably possible.

We readily appreciate that at the Wellesley family law firm of Lisa A. Ruggieri, P.C. We note on our website that our firm “can work with you to help you maintain your lifestyle as much as possible” following divorce.

We welcome contacts to the firm, and the opportunity to help clients with all their family law needs.