You do not need to go to court to change your name.  You are allowed to change your name as long as it is not for an illegal or dishonest reason( know a scommon law change).  However, it is much easier to legally change your name which does require that you go to court.  You […]

You have a statutory right to inspect a large number of public records ( Chapter 66 sec 10a-MGL).  You may need to pay a fee but that must be reasonable to cover the cost of searching, redacting copying and so forth.  The custodian of the record has up to 10 days to refuse or comply […]

How fees are paid can be now done by either money order or by check.  If they are mailed, mail it to the Registry of Probate at 40 Broadway Street, Taunton, MA 02780.  You can also pay in person with check, money order, cash or a major credit card at the Taunton address or at […]

Again, if you are not certain you can put down that you are not certain and indicate how you arrived at that, but it is important to do a footnote or an asterisk.  If you are valuation a stock or a 401k, you want to indicate the date that you are using for that valuation […]

In Massachusetts paternity needs to be established in order to determine the child’s legal father if the parties are not married.  There are different ways that it can be done.   One is, simply signing an Acknowledgement of Paternity.  Father and mother state that the father is the child’s father; and it would appear on […]

Massachusetts has a new Child Support Guidelines it will take effect on August 1, 2013.  In general, it appears to decrease the amount of child support paid by the non-custodial parent to the parent and at 10% is a general rule of thumb.  There are a couple of key provisions: One is for the source […]

Sometimes people are not sure whether they have the true figure or if it is an estimate. Unless you do a footnote or explain that it is an estimate, the court is likely to assume that your expenses and income are actual figures and that you are looking at from a reviewing of your past […]

It needs identifying data which would be a place for the names of the parties; the date and place of the marriage; and the names and dates of birth of the children under the custody aspect.  It has to describe equal custody and physical custody; including living arrangements and a parenting plan. This concludes on […]

The new child support guidelines are currently out, but not in effect until August 1, 2013. Some of the highlights of the new child support guidelines in Massachusetts are that it can be calculated in different ways; including, depending on how much time a parent spends with his/her child and how expenses are split where […]

The new Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Law, which in the past, has decriminalized certain possessions of marijuana overall and on the November 6th ballot the voters of Massachusetts allowed the medical marijuana use or legalizing the use of marijuana.  It still has questions about some of the federal laws, but this is a new change as well.