What is the Difference between a Court Ordered Mediation and Private Mediation?            In Massachusetts sometimes, the court tells the parties to go to Probation or Family Services for a Court Ordered mediation as a requirement as part of the divorce proceedings. A private mediation is a voluntary process where both […]

What are the Benefits of Mediation?                              Over the typical adversarial route: Is it takes less time; It allows you control over the decisions that affect your life; Reduces conflict; particularly raising your children; Also avoids some public disclosure of information that you […]

How does Divorce Mediation work? Instead of litigating with each other about every issue and having a Judge decide which can be both costly, time consuming and stressful, a trained mediator will help you and your spouse work together to reach an agreement.  It is teaching the parties how to evaluate their financial situation and […]

There are a variety of circumstances where a court appointed lawyer may be appropriate.  You have to show that you are indigent and have to be approved by the court. As many people know in criminal cases, because of some constitutional protections you are entitled to a lawyer and again, a court appointed one if […]

Massachusetts lawyers must keep what statements you make to him/her confidential when you speak to him/her privately.  Any conversation that you have is considered confidential.  It is called the “Attorney Client Privilege” and there are strict rules of confidentiality that only apply to the lawyer, but also to staff members in the lawyer’s office. There […]

It is called an “Uncontested Divorce.”  If you or your soon to be ex-spouse are able to resolve things amicably and agree on all issues which can include dividing assets, debt, child support, alimony, custody, parenting with the children, health insurance and other issues, then you can prepare the necessary documents including a Joint Petition […]

Can you change the name of the father on a Massachusetts Birth Certificate? This is a fairly frequent question that people ask. Sometimes there is a question about not knowing who the father is at the time of the birth.  You could be married to someone who is not actually the biological father; or even […]

There is an Ombudsman office and their phone number is (617) 748-2444 or the email is dcfombudsman@state.ma.us. They are an avenue beyond the DCF office that you can contact for different aspects of the case; including issues with DCF office, the policies, actions or service plan that is being involved with. It is not a […]

This is relatively new. It used to be that you would need to hire your own attorney, then only in DCF cases, criminal cases or other cases when an attorney be appointed, but now there have been a larger number of attorneys being appointed for both parents and children. It is not automatic, and somebody […]

It is called Care and Protection of Walt.  It is a 2017 decision where DCF needs to make reasonable efforts to avoid removal of children and to reunify families after the children are removed.  The Juvenile Court needs to enforce these requirements through reasonable efforts and it has significant ability to order DCF to provide […]