USA – MASSACHUSETTS Law and Practice Contributed by: Mary H. Schmidt, Rachel A. Deering, Hannah R. Zukoff and Mariah G. Tappan, Verrill Dana, LLP
Verrill Dana, LLP One Federal Street 20th Floor Boston MA 02110 USA Tel: +1 617 309 2600 Email: verrill@verrill-law.com Web: www.verrill-law.com
1. The Care Provider’s Ability to Take Decisions About the Child 1.1 Parental Responsibility In Massachusetts, a parent’s decision-making author - ity is known as “legal custody”. Legal custody relates to a parent’s right and responsibility to make major decisions regarding a child’s welfare including matters of education, medical care and emotional, moral and religious development. Parents are either awarded “sole” or “joint” legal custody. This is governed by two different statutes, depending on whether the par - ents are married or unmarried. If the parties are mar - ried, General Laws of Massachusetts (M.G.L.) Chapter (Ch.) 208, Section 31 is applicable. If the parties are unmarried, M.G.L. Ch. 209C, Section 10 is applicable. 1.2 Requirements for Birth Mothers Assuming the birth mother is the intended parent, there are no requirements for the mother to obtain parental responsibility. (M.G.L. Ch. 209C.) 1.3 Requirements for Fathers If the Parties are Married If the parents are married, a father automatically has parental responsibility for the child if the father is mar - ried to the person who gave birth to the child, and the child was born during the marriage or within 300 days after the marriage was terminated. (M.G.L. Ch. 209C, Section 6.) If the Parties are Unmarried If the parents are unmarried, there are two main ways that a father can obtain parental responsibility:
• voluntary acknowledgment of parentage; or • adjudication of parentage by a court. Voluntary Acknowledgement The Voluntary Acknowledgement is a written agree - ment executed by both parents. It must be notarised and filed with the registrar of vital records and statis - tics or the court. Once it is executed and filed, it has a legal effect as a judgment of parentage, as long as it is not rescinded within 60 days or challenged within one year on the grounds of fraud, duress or a mistake of fact. (M.G.L. Ch. 209C, Section 11.) Once the Vol - untary Acknowledgement is executed and filed, and the 60 days have passed, the father’s name is added to the child’s birth certificate. If the father of the child was not the spouse of the mother, prior to signing a Voluntary Acknowledge - ment, the birth mother and her spouse must sign an affidavit denying that the spouse has any parental responsibility, prior to the father acknowledging par - entage. (M.G.L. Ch. 46, Section 3C.) Adjudication If one of the two parents is seeking to establish par - entage, and there is no Voluntary Acknowledgement, either parent can file a Complaint to Establish Parent - age. The court will then have to make a determina - tion as to the parentage. If the father’s parentage is in dispute, the court can order genetic marker testing for the child and the father to easily make this deter - mination. If the genetic marker test demonstrates that the father is the biological parent, the court will enter an order establishing that the man is the legal father,
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