Foster Care Reviews are involved in DCF cases where people can be involved in a review at the DCF office of the appropriateness of the child or children’s placement, the participation of the parents or guardians, foster care and DCF. There are certain tasks or service plans that are looked at in terms of the […]
01
Mar
In Massachusetts if somebody objects to a Motion to Dismiss, they are entitled to have a trial. Occasionally the judge might give some strong indications of what he or she may do and it might not make sense to go to trial but many times parents have tried to a Motion to Dismiss prior to […]
25
Feb
In practice the vast majority of times the courts do grant a Motion to Dismiss is if the Department seeks it and all parties agree. However, the court does have discretion and can make the parties go forward at trial. I have had that occur a couple of times in my practice; although if DCF […]
22
Feb
There is something that is called a Lampron-Dwyer Protocol you have to file and do a service of a motion. It is under the Mass Rules of Criminal Procedure 17. The idea is if there is a 3rd party record that you are seeking, there are some requirements that need to occur which you can […]
18
Feb
In Massachusetts children are considered to be incompetent legally, meaning making a decision such as whether or not to waive their Therapist Patient Privilege. A GAL would be appointed to not just ask the child what his/her position is, but to substitute their judgment for the child to determine whether or not it would be […]
15
Feb
You need to check with the court and the procedures with the court but usually the answer is yes. You can have a hearing to have some of the conditions amended or changed. A lot of the time those can be conditions regarding a child or children. Other times it can be something as simple […]
11
Feb
In Massachusetts if you decide to hire a new attorney, typically what happens is that new attorney files something called a “Notice of Appearance” providing that to your prior attorney and that attorney would file a “Notice of Withdrawal”. I would send all the relevant paperwork in your file to your new attorney. So, you […]
08
Feb
In general, the cases that I have had have all have been by video conferencing similar to Zoom where you receive a link and are able to have the hearing. Everything is certainly subject to change, but the cases that I have had, have not appeared that they are having in-person hearings for Fair Hearing […]
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