DCF has a variety of policies and procedures in something called CMR related to what they are supposed to do.  However, there can be a great difference in which office handles the case. Some offices have a different reputation on a practical level.  It can be a dramatic difference in terms of which office handles […]

Parents in Massachusetts are permitted to change the name of their child as long as the minor is in their legal custody. Anyone under the age of eighteen (18) is considered a minor. In order to legally change their child’s name, the parent or legal guardian must file a petition with their county court. The petitioner […]

The Parenting App is a court approved secure app and platform for better communication between co-parents. Co-parent messages on OurFamilyWizard can never be edited, deleted, or retracted.  The most common parenting app that the courts use that is paid is the “Our Family Wizard” and there are costs associated with this, it is the most common app.  There […]

In Massachusetts there is an interesting new case about reasonable efforts in a DCF Care & Protection Case.  The name of the case is Care and Protection of Rashida it is a 2021 case.  It involves what is determined to be reasonable efforts.  Reasonable efforts are efforts made to preserve and reunify families prior to the […]

You always want to do what you can in protecting your children and you would know that better than any attorney or anybody else.  You do want to be cautious about calling DCF; particularly, if there are issues that are going on in Probate Court that have not been brought up in Probate Court.  For […]

Every case is unique, you would not want to speak to the reporter. One, the reporter remains unknown and it will be redacted in whatever records that you get and you might be confronting the wrong person who is not actually the reporter.  Second, the reporter itself is unlikely to go well and if you […]

In Massachusetts if DCF is doing an interview with you, you want to treat it like a deposition, if you have ever done one of those; or consider it in that you want to answer the question assuming you are agreeing to answer it.  You don’t necessarily expand a great deal in terms of DCF’s […]

The answer is yes.  If there is one child between 18 and 23. So this is not applicable, but let’s say there are 3 children and 2 of them are under 18, it would be about a 25% reduction under the Child Support Guidelines assuming that the child has graduated high school.  The 25% reduction […]