The appointment of a parenting coordinator is pursuant to an agreement by the parties. The court will approve this and incorporate it into an Order. There also can be a possibility of the court ordering it without the agreement of the parties.

This is under General Laws, Chapters 208, 209, and 209c. A parenting coordinator does not take over for the court even if the parties have agreed to follow the binding decision-making authority of the parenting coordinator. The parenting coordinator needs to be approved by the court and be on a list. There are qualifications for this. Generally, the parties would want to agree on a parenting coordinator and would file a Joint Petition Motion to Change Judgment or a Temporary Order and have some certain language that is confirmed to make sure that the parenting coordinator is qualified and whether there are decisions or binding or not, and the scope of it, who is paying for it and if there has been a Fee Agreement with the parenting coordinator and so forth. There are other aspects of it, but it is not all the requirements, but it is some.