Sometimes people choose not to get a divorce even though the parties chose to live apart, but they can remain married for a variety of reasons; including, religious; personal; financial reasons or arguably for the sake of the children. You may decide to file a Judgment of Separate Support or Judgment of Support which can decide custody as well, but is not a divorce and you would remained married.

The main difference is that the Judgment of Separate Support does not end the marriage. Separate Support Judgment can address some of the same issues as a divorce can such as custody; visitation; child support and alimony or support of the spouse.

There is no legal separation though in Massachusetts. You do not have to get the court’s permission to live apart from your spouse and it is legal to live apart from your spouse, but to get court orders, you do have to file at least the Complaint for Separate Support or Complaint for Support.

Some people get a Legal Separation and Separation Agreements mixed up. In court, Separation Agreements are part of the Divorce, even though it is called the Separation Agreement; and it will deal with a variety of issues that the divorce case would deal with that in another blog.