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Family

In marriages, it is not uncommon for couples to have conflicting views about their children participating in sports. Such disputes can be based on factors like finances, time constraints, and concern about injury. With divorce these disagreements can be magnified and lead to litigation and addition emotional upset. The best way to avoid such problems […]

Even with intact families, there are often conflicts over what seem to be minor issues like “what’s for dinner?” However, in divorce and high conflict custody cases parenting styles may come into major disagreement arising from differences in religion, medication, sports, etc. Often parents cannot compromise and request that a judge get involved in what […]

There are several steps to file divorce in MA:  Jurisdiction- generally it is easy to show jurisdiction with generally live together as husband and wife in MA and residency requirements but if grounds for divorce occurred outside of MA the plaintiff needs to have lived in MA for at least a year prior to filing […]

If you do not know where your spouse lives or how to serve them paperwork in a divorce and you have made some reasonable attempts to try and locate them you can file a motion for publication and have the notice listed in newspaper where he or she was last known to live( there is […]

In past the only way to get a divorce was to find that your spouse was at fault such as adultery, abuse and so forth.  Now MA( and most states) allow no fault divorce simply because one spouse does not want to be married.  This avoids showing that your spouse was at fault and makes […]

In part, a mandated reported who in his or her professional capacity has “reasonable cause” to believe that a child is suffering physical or emotional injury that results from either (1) abuse inflicted upon the child which causes harm or substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or welfare( includes sexual abuse); (2)neglect( includes […]

If DCF decides to place children away from the parents or guardians DCF policy is supposed to look for “family first” as placement such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins( also to a certain extent family friends, teachers etc.).  The reason is that the transition will be easier for the child.  You should at least […]

Talking to social workers, court investigators and GAL’s is stressful.  They are looking at you like you are on stage and looking to see if you are a loving, stable and thoughtful parent. A few hints are:  keep focus on children not your or significant other or ex if you need to make focus on […]

There is relatively new law regarding children in foster care or residential treatment.  There is a presumption that child should go to the same school( school of origin) and DCF has a meeting to make this determination.   Parents and children should have a voice as many times DCF will aim for having child go […]

If a prior court order no longer works for the parties or circumstances change the party may seek a modification. The party must file a complaint for modification to change a judgment. A further temporary order may change a prior temporary order. The most common changes are alimony or spousal support, custody and parenting time […]