UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more: The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: About a year ago we posted a series entitled Who is a Legal Parent? and addressed the many ways in which a parent (someone who takes care of a child) can also be considered a legal parent (someone who the court recognizes has rights and obligations relating to the care of a child).   In the Venn Diagram to the left you can see that these two categories overlap but not everyone who is a legal parent acts like a parent, and not everyone who acts like a parent is recognized as a legal parent. Today, the Massachusetts SJC expanded the purple section of this diagram, recognizing that a non-biological parent who "jointly with the mother, received the child into their home and openly ...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Our last post discussed the de facto parent standards in Massachusetts.  Grandparent visitation rights in Massachusetts are similar in some ways to de facto parent rights but also different.  They are similar in that the "best interest of the child" is supposed to be the highest priority in the court's determination.  However, there are many differences between these two types of parenting rights: While de facto parenting rights are created by the equity powers of the court, there is a grandparent visitation statute in Massachusetts ( MGL c.119, s.39D ).  The statute applies specifically to children living in a separated parent household, which distincti...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Guest Post by Joyce Kauffman and Patience Crozier  both of Kauffman Crozier LLP .  In addition to an extensive divorce and traditional family law practice, Joyce's practice focuses on issues impacting the LGBTQ community.  Patience is a principal of Kauffman Crozier LLP who focuses on all areas of family law, particularly adoption, divorce, dissolution, prenuptial agreements, domestic partnership agreements, assisted reproductive technology, paternity and guardianship. Co-Parent Adoption In 1993, the SJC determined that same-sex couples can jointly adopt children in Massachusetts.   Adoption of Tammy .  Since then, thousands of children ha...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Post by Julie Tolek .  Julie is an Associate at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC and runs her own practice, Think Pink Law.  Julie's practice includes family law & divorce representation, firearms licensing & NFA trusts, estate planning & probate, and adoptions. Adoption Adoption is the process by which one person becomes a parent by legally agreeing to care for another person’s biological child and to raise the child as his or her own biological child.  The adoptive parent acquires the legal rights and obligations of parentage including the legal rights to make decision about every aspect of the child's health and happiness. The Adoption Proc...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: As discussed in our previous post, in order to include the father's name on the birth certificate he and the mother must sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity.  If a mother or father refuses to sign the Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity, then paternity can only be established by court action and the mother alone will appear on the birth certificate until there is an order of the court to add the father. If the father or mother wants to establish paternity of a child in Massachusetts, then either party can file a Complaint to Establish Paternity with the Probate and Family Court.  If the presumed father denies or is unsure that he is the father of the ch...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Unmarried mothers in Massachusetts are presumed to be the legal and physical custodian of a child without going to court.   Unmarried fathers in Massachusetts are not provided with any legal or physical custody rights without going to court, unless they are added to the Birth Certificate at the time of the child's birth.  This is despite the fact that a child support obligation can begin to accrue upon the birth of the child even if the father is unaware of their existence or not involved in the child's life. The Birth Certificate is completed with information provided by the mother of the baby. If she is unmarried, then she can request the father's name be inclu...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Post by Valerie Qian .  Valerie is an Associate at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC.  Valerie's practice includes family law & divorce representation, mediation, and collaborative divorce. The Presumption of Legal Parentage to a child born of a Marriage Is it presumed that a child who is born into a marriage is legally the child of the other spouse of the marriage?  The short answer is yes, regardless of whether the child is biologically related to the other spouse. The statute governing this question in Massachusetts is Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 209C, Section 6 .  Moreover, any child born as a result of artificial insemination with spou...

UPDATE: With the passage of the Massachusetts Parentage Act, the definitions of legal parentage have been updated by the legislature.  Read this article to learn more:  The Massachusetts Parentage Act by Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Original Post: Many have tried to frame the debate over same-sex marriage or LGBT rights to be a debate over the changing definition of parents and family.  But the truth is that the definition of family has been constantly changing and evolving and the definition of a parent has always differed from family to family.  Some people are raised by a male and female parent, and others are raised by a grandparent, or one parent, or two female or two male parents.  And many children have more than two people that function as parents and role models. The definition of biological parent is clear; requiring a male and female genetic component to create a child.  However, definin...

Guest Post by Beth Aarons , a Mediator and Collaboratively trained attorney who is of counsel to Skylark Law & Mediation, PC and who also has her own practice in Newtonville .  Beth is available for consultation on adoptions , like the one discussed below: In a recent slip opinion Adoption of a Minor, SJC-11797 , the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) determined that a known sperm donor of a child born to a married same-sex couple is not a legal parent of the child who would be entitled to notice of the child’s adoption. J.S. and V.K., two women legally married to each other, conceived a child through artificial insemination with a known sperm donor.  The child’s birth certificate names J.S. and V.K. as the legal parents and to protect their rights they sought to jointly adopt their son to ensure equal recognition of their parentage outside of Massachusetts.  The Probate and Family Court declined to allow the adoption to proceed absent legal notice to t...

A Caregiver Authorization is an alternative to going to court for a guardianship of a minor. It is a form that allows a parent to give a Caregiver the power to make medical and education decisions for a child. A Caregiver is someone the child lives with who is not a parent. A Caregiver Authorization is different from a Guardianship in a few major ways: 1. It does not give the Caregiver custody of the child, only the right to make decisions. 2. It does not take away any powers from the parents, and the parents retain final decision making authority. 3. A Caregiver Authorization can be revoked by a parent via letter to the caregiver. A Caregiver Authorization is good for two years or until a parent revokes it. For more information regarding why you would use a Caregiver Authorization and how to complete it read the Massachusetts Caregiver Instructions provided by the Court. Click here to obtain the Caregiver Authorization Form .

In Massachusetts, the standard for a no-fault divorce is whether or not you subjectively believe that your marriage is irretrievably broken down with no chance of reconciliation. If you are separated but believe that there is a chance of reconciliation, then you should not get divorced (and you do not meet the legal standard to do so anyway). However, if you are separated and you do believe that your marriage is over, then there are some compelling reasons not to wait to get divorced. This four part post will highlight the most compelling of these reasons. Reason #1 Not to Wait: Cutting Financial Ties So long as you are married, you have a financial link to your spouse. In Massachusetts any property that you hold either jointly or individually can be considered marital property subject to division by the family court. This means that if you acquire financial assets after your separation your spouse may have a claim to those, even if they didn't pay a dime to help you ob...

Casino Billionaire to pay $100,000 per Month in Child Support for Non-Biological Child : As reported in a recent Boston.com Article , Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, the major shareholder of MGM Resorts International, has settled with Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, to whom he was married for only 28 days, to pay over $10 million in child support arrears as well as $100,000 in child support per month. Even more shocking than the figures and the short term of the marriage is the fact that Mr. Kerkorian is not the biological father of the child and was purposefully defrauded by the mother who faked a DNA test. In Massachusetts, a person who is married within 300 days of the birth of the child to the mother is the legal parent of the child even if they are not the biological parent. This is a presumption that can be overcome with a paternity test. However, even if the paternity test proves that the husband is not the biological father, this does not necessarily mean he is not the legal father. S...