The Probate and Family Court in Massachusetts is underfunded and cannot handle the amount of litigants that seek relief there each year in as timely a manner as everyone would like.  The Court staff are not ignoring cases, but there just aren't enough court staff to handle the demand.  Because of these issues, the wait time for a hearing in most counties has increased significantly. But finally after months and months of waiting your hearing is finally here.  The Judge hears your case and takes the issues under advisement.  And now the waiting begins again.  How long are you expected to wait for an answer from the Judge?  What happens if a decision is never made?  Or, even worse, if the decision was made but never recorded due to some clerical error? In the past, our only option when these issues arose was to check in with the Judge's Lobby and find out if one of the Judge's secretaries could discover the delay.  Of course, this created more w...

Assuming you are a resident of Massachusetts for 1 year, or you meet one of the other jurisdictional requirements to have your case heard in Massachusetts , the fact that your marriage was solemnized in another country will not usually make a difference. With a few exceptions (such as g oing to a foreign jurisdiction to get married when you wouldn't be considered competent in MA ), a foreign marriage is recognized as a legal marriage in MA so long as it is recognized as a legal marriage in the country of the marriage.  Under M.G.L. c. 207 s 36 you can file a foreign marriage certificate with your town clerk to have it recorded, if you want vital records to have a record of your marriage. However, that usually isn't necessary in order to file a divorce.  You just have to file an original or a certified copy of the marriage certificate with the Complaint for Divorce.  If the original or certified copy is not in English then I would also recommend having a certified t...

Standing Order 2-99 of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court governs the proper procedures for submitting post-hearing Motions to the Probate and Family Court.  Per the Court's recent Press Release , amendments to this Standing Order, which took effect on July 2, 2012, clarify what types of motions may be submitted in these situations. It had become common under the old version of the order for parties to file a Motion for Reconsideration or a Motion for Clarification after receiving an unfavorable Judgment or Order after a hearing in the Probate and Family Court.  The old rule made specific reference to these types of Motions.    However, there is no specific Massachusetts Domestic Relations Procedure Rule  that allows for Motions for Reconsideration or Motions for Clarification specifically.  Under Massachusetts Domestics Relations Procedure Rule 60  a Motion for Relief from Judgment and Order may be brought, but only for very spe...

When presenting at a Motion for Temporary Orders, Restraining Order, Motion to Vacate, or similar hearing the Court will typically hear argument from parties or counsel without a full evidentiary hearing. This means that the Judge will make a decision that could significantly affect your life after having only 10-15 minutes to learn what is going on. I tell clients to pay attention to everything the Judge does during that hearing to get a clue as to what the Judge might be thinking and how they might rule. When they are looking at you, when they are writing, and what questions they ask, are all clues as to what is important to the Judge. Similarly, the Judge is watching everything you do during that hearing. Since the Judge only has 10-15 minutes to assess your credibility as a witness everything you are doing matters as well. Judges are not just listening to what you say, but how you say it. In addition, the way you react to the allegations of the other party can be crucial ...

On March 15, 2010, the Chief Justice of the Probate & Family Court released uniform Probate and Family Court Scheduling Practices and Procedures . These procedures include certain requirements intended to promote predictability and uniformity of practice for the scheduling of all types of hearings in the Probate and Family Courts throughout the Commonwealth. The practices include mandatory scheduling of a next event and other requirements intended to keep cases moving forward. One of the changes is to the Motion scheduling practice. Although some courts, such as Plymouth Probate & Family Court, previously allowed for scheduling of Motions at the discretion of the litigants (within the Notice rules ), other courts, such as Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk Counties, only allowed for scheduling of Motions by the rules of their individual trial departments. According to the Chief Justice's new procedures: "There shall be no restrictions on the number or timing of motions ...