General Laws of Massachusetts - Chapter 209C Children Born Out of Wedlock
- Massachusetts General Laws - Declaration of purpose; definition; responsibility for support - Chapter 209C, Section 1
Children born to parents who are not married to each other shall be entitled to the same rights and protections of the law as all...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Paternity; acknowledgment or adjudication; statistical information of parties; transmission to registrar - Chapter 209C, Section 2
Paternity may be established by filing with the court, the clerk of the city or town where the child was born or the registrar of...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Paternity and support actions; jurisdiction; enforcement of prior orders or judgments; juvenile court commitment proceedings; parents convicted of first degree murder - Chapter 209C, Section 3
(a) The district, Boston municipal and the probate and family court departments of the trial court shall have concurrent jurisdiction over complaints to establish paternity...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Venue; service - Chapter 209C, Section 4
Actions under this chapter to establish paternity, support, custody or visitation of a child shall be filed in the judicial district or county in which...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Persons entitled to maintain actions or execute voluntary acknowledgment of parentage; parties - Chapter 209C, Section 5
(a) Complaints under this chapter to establish paternity, support, visitation or custody of a child may be commenced by the mother, whether a minor or...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Presumption of paternity; mandatory joinder - Chapter 209C, Section 6
(a) In all actions under this chapter a man is presumed to be the father of a child and must be joined as a party...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Representation in paternity actions; appointment of counsel; burden of proof - Chapter 209C, Section 7
Actions under this chapter shall be civil actions. The IV-D agency, as set forth in chapter one hundred and nineteen A, may appear on behalf...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Judgment of paternity; age of father; notice - Chapter 209C, Section 8
On complaint to establish paternity, the court shall make a judgment establishing or not establishing paternity which shall be determinative for all purposes. Upon default...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Judgment or order for support; health insurance; financial statement; determination of amount; notice - Chapter 209C, Section 9
(a) If the court finds that a parent is chargeable with the support of a child, the court shall make an order in accordance with...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Award of custody; criteria - Chapter 209C, Section 10
(a) Upon or after an adjudication or voluntary acknowledgment of paternity, the court may award custody to the mother or the father or to them...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Acknowledgment of parentage; approval; parental agreements regarding custody, support and visitation - Chapter 209C, Section 11
(a) A written voluntary acknowledgment of parentage executed jointly by the putative father, whether a minor or not, and the mother of the child, whether...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Trial; exclusion of public - Chapter 209C, Section 12
In actions under this chapter, the trial shall be by the court without a jury. In an action to establish paternity, the court shall, upon...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Inspection of documents; copies; segregation of records - Chapter 209C, Section 13
In an action to establish paternity or in which paternity of a child is an issue, all complaints, pleadings, papers, documents or reports filed in...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Complaints brought prior to birth - Chapter 209C, Section 14
An action to establish paternity of a child may be instituted during pregnancy of the mother but shall only be filed by the mother or...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Temporary orders; enforcement; information required to be given to petitioner; domestic violence record search - Chapter 209C, Section 15
At any time pursuant to an action under this chapter, the court may upon motion of any party or on its own motion issue a...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Competency to testify; refusal to testify; costs of tests; admissibility of evidence; failure of party to attend; testimony by telephone or affidavit - Chapter 209C, Section 16
(a) Both the plaintiff and the defendant are competent to testify in proceedings hereunder. (b) Upon refusal of a witness, including a party, to testify...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Genetic marker tests; affidavit; refusal to submit to test; costs - Chapter 209C, Section 17
In an action under this chapter to establish paternity of a child born out of wedlock, the court shall, on motion of a party and...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Judgments or orders of support; enforcement - Chapter 209C, Section 18
Each judgment or order of support which is issued, reviewed or modified pursuant to this chapter shall conform to and shall be enforced in accordance...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Judgment or temporary order of support; enforcement - Chapter 209C, Section 19
A judgment of support issued in conclusion of a proceeding under this chapter or a temporary support order issued under this chapter may be enforced...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Modification of judgments; jurisdiction - Chapter 209C, Section 20
A court with original jurisdiction pursuant to section three has continuing jurisdiction, upon a complaint filed by a person or agency entitled to file original...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Action to determine mother and child relationship - Chapter 209C, Section 21
Any interested party may bring an action to determine the existence of a mother and child relationship. Insofar as practicable, the provisions of this chapter...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Proceedings barred under this chapter - Chapter 209C, Section 22
(a) A decree or judgment entered on a petition filed pursuant to sections three or six of chapter two hundred and ten shall be a...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Intermarriage of parents; jurisdiction - Chapter 209C, Section 23
(a) If, after adjudication of paternity or voluntary acknowledgment of parentage, the parents of the child intermarry, any order or judgments of the court relative...
- Massachusetts General Laws - Forms - Chapter 209C, Section 24
The administrative justices of the district, Boston municipal and the probate and family court department of the trial court shall jointly promulgate forms for complaints,...
Last modified: September 11, 2015