The following is a press release issued by the office of Rep. John Fernandes:

Rep. John V. Fernandes (D-Milford) and his colleague in the Senate, Senator Gale Candaras (D-Wilbraham) will receive the prestigious President’s Award from the Massachusetts Bar Association, which will be given to both elected officials at the MBA’s Family Law Conference on October 26^th.

Rep. Fernandes and Sen. Candaras served as Co-Chairs of a task force of diverse stakeholders charged with working on far-reaching reforms to the widely perceived unfair and arbitrary alimony laws in our state.  The task force worked for over eighteen months crafting dramatic, far reaching and widely praised changes to the antiquated alimony laws that had eluded reform for over twenty years. 

The final product of the Task Force garnered unanimous bipartisan support in the House and Senate, was igned into law by Governor Deval Patrick on September 26^th, 2012 and went into effect on March 1, 2012. The law establishes clear guidelines and timelines for alimony awards and inserts predictability into the otherwise previously far too discretionary process of alimony awards determinations.

Fernandes stated: “I am extremely honored to be receiving the President’s Award, along with my working partner, Senator Candaras, and I wish to extend my personal gratitude to the members of the Alimony Reform Task Force, my colleagues in the House and Senate including Speaker DeLeo, Senate President Murray, as well as Governor Patrick for their support for this historic reforms.”

According to the MBA’s official website: “The President's Award is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the work of the MBA, to the preservation of MBA values, to the success of MBA initiatives and to the promotion of MBA leadership role within the legal community in Massachusetts.”