The court sometimes call it a 1A but it is also a Joint Petition for Divorce where both parties are co-petitioners and doing this together rather than one person being a Plaintiff and one person being a Defendant.

This is one where there can be a lot of different arguments about based upon the length of the marriage, whether separate property might be marital assets that were owned by a spouse prior to the marriage and therefore the spouse with those assets would argue that it is not a martial asset and it […]

In Massachusetts what it is called is an “Equitable Distribution State.” It means that it is not always a 50/50 division. It is called Mass General Laws Section 34 Factors. The Section 34 factors include the length of the marriage, the conduct of the parties during the marriage, the age, health, station, occupation, amount and […]

It is a good practice for the DCF worker to read the allegations in the screen-in piece in the 51A to you.  You can request those to be read.  Again, portions of that might not be but it would be advisable not to talk to DCF until you either have gotten a copy of the […]

Yes, you are entitled to get a copy of your DCF records. You do need to make the request in writing and it does sometimes take a period of time for DCF to provide those records as they are redacted meaning that portions of the report are blacked out; such as who the reporters are […]

You do not need to.   You can be present, or have someone else present including an attorney.  Although, every case is different. It generally would be recommended that someone be present during the time that your child is being interviewed.

Once the report is made the report is supposed to be within 5 business days.  If it is an emergency or within 15 business days if it is not deemed to be an emergency.  There have certainly been many times exceptions in terms of how long realistically it does take.

What you would need to do is instead of filing a Complaint for Modification, file a Complaint for Contempt and ask that the court order sanctions because of the party’s failure to pay. You have to show that the order is clear and ambiguous and that the other party knowingly violated the order.  Not only […]

There is a significant difference of child support that has never been ordered versus if there is an order that is looking to be either increased or decreased.  In Massachusetts there is a determination about whether retroactive child support will do relates to whether or not the child was born out of wedlock.  If the […]

Unless exceptional circumstances or agreement of the parties the new order can only go back to the date that the Complaint for Modification; which is the paperwork that you’re saying that there is a change in circumstances was served.  Served means the date that a process server, constable or a sheriff serves the other parent […]