It is our hope that all families find a way to resolve conflict peacefully.  This is especially true when children are involved.  Divorced or separated parenting has many complications and the first is just deciding how to share time with a child from two separate households.  Developing a schedule can result in a lot of tension, especially if parents have trouble picturing how this new schedule will interact with their work schedules and the schedules of their children. To help make this easier, we've created an online tool for creating parenting plans that is simple and easy to use: We encourage parents, regardless of the process they are using to divorce, to use this form to assist in evaluating and settling custody disputes. The form allows you to choose between the Model Parenting Plan proposals or customize your parenting plan over a four week period by clicking directly on the form.  When you click on a section of the calendar it switches between ...

As of July 15, 2015, the Massachusetts Family Court's website and forms have been updated to use the term "parenting time" in lieu of the outdated term "visitation."  Chief Justice Angela Ordoñez has made this long overdue change recognizing the national trend away from the pejorative term "visitation", which implies that one parent has less of a role than the other. This was simply the right thing to do and we applaud the move.

Unrolled Joint (Public Domain Image courtesy of Wikipedia) Medical Marijuana has been legalized in Massachusetts and   possession of one ounce or less, even for "recreational" use, has been decriminalized .  In addition, marijuana for recreational use has been legalized in two states in 2013, and more may be on the way . Traditionally, illegal use of marijuana by a parent could result in DCF involvement and would definitely be a factor considered by a family court if two parents were disputing custody in a divorce or paternity action.  Although many parents did not see "what the big deal was", judges would often test for marijuana use and restrict parenting time for parents that tested positive. Does the national shift towards legalization for both medicinal and recreational use mean that smoking pot should no longer be a factor in determining fitness for custody?   In an article written by  Henry Gornbein  when states began legalizing medicinal ...

In 2009, the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines added language acknowledging the increase in shared parenting by specifically defining how the Court should calculate child support differently when parents share parenting time "equally, or approximately equally."  The 2009 Guidelines recognized the sharing of parenting costs in shared parenting arrangements, determining the presumptive support amount "by calculating the child support guidelines twice, first with one parent as the Recipient, and second with the other parent as the Recipient. The difference in the calculations shall be paid to the parent with the lower weekly support amount." Prior to this addition there was significant deviation in how different Judges handled the question of child support in shared parenting arrangements, ranging from no child support to standard child support guidelines, both extremes of which fail to recognize the financial impact of shared parenting. However, the 2009 Gu...