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...

Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. and Think Pink Law  wish health, happiness and peace for all of our clients, colleagues, mentors, followers, visitors, well-wishers and even our distant relations. Our practices focus on solutions reached as often as possible through peaceful, rather than adversarial, processes.  Even when we expect to disagree, we try to begin all of our conversations recognizing the basic human dignity of the other involved parties.  Through that approach we hope to reduce the conflict in a world that is full of conflicts that seem unsolvable. When that fails there will always be funny internet videos to cheer us up.

One of my favorite NSFW musicals is Avenue Q , where the main character (a puppet / liberal arts graduate), spends most of the story  trying to find his purpose in life.  I think it strikes a chord with me because I am constantly re-examining whether my work reflects my values.  When Attorney Trask left Kelsey & Trask, P.C. last year, I was given an opportunity to reconsider how this firm reflected what I, personally, found most important. Throughout the last year, that self-reflection has resulted in some changes that helped us focus more on our dispute resolution work and resulted in the creation of Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. - where we help families resolve conflict. That has become the central theme of our work and with that focus we have removed some practice areas and added others, and we have grown our staff to cover those new practice areas. First, what have we removed?  Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. will no longer be handling bankrup...

On Friday, November 13, 2015 terrorists attacked three locations in Paris, France , killing 129 people , in the most deadly attack on French soil since World War II.  I recently tried to explain to my 6 year old daughter what lessons we can learn from these attacks and from how the world reacted.  Through tears of my own, I explained to her that there are bad people in this world and there are good people. I told her that unfortunately we can't tell who are the good people and who are the bad people just by looking at them.  But we can tell who are the good people and who are the bad people by what they do.  I explained that bad people had killed good and innocent people without reason because they are controlled by their fear and anger. But more importantly, I explained how good people reacted.  Despite the natural inclination to protect oneself above all else, many Parisians opened their doors to strangers in the immediate wake of the attacks.  The ...