Family Law/ Domestic Violence

MLRI’s Family Law Unit advocates for judicial, administrative, and legislative policies that make the lives of low income parents, victims of domestic violence, and their children safer and more physically, emotionally, and financially stable.  MLRI's family law advocates also support local legal aid programs by providing technical assistance and leadership for the Family Law Task Force.  The Family Law Unit advances reforms that improve the way courts handle family law and domestic violence cases, defends Massachusetts’ “best interest of the child” policy, and informs victims of domestic violence and low income parents about their rights.

Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence by Improving how Courts Handle Child Custody, Visitation and Financial Issues - MLRI:

• Supports legal services and battered women’s shelter attorneys and advocates statewide, through coordination of a statewide coalition, technical assistance, advice, and training, to ensure the most effective advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence involved in Probate and Family Court cases.

●  Provides leadership to effectively address tactics used in court against domestic violence survivors which impeded their ability to protect their children.

Advocating To Improve the Way Courts Handle Family Law and Domestic Violence Cases - MLRI advocates to:

•End the practice of courts sending victims seeking a restraining order to yet another court to get protection

•Reduce or eliminate language barriers for victims of domestic violence in restraining order and family law cases

•Increase judges’ use of supervised visitation centers that protect victims of domestic violence and their children

•Enable so that low income parents can file their own cases to establish, modify, or enforce child support orders

•Guarantee access to the Courts for low income litigants by ensuring that low income parents have their court fees waived as required by law

Promoting Legislation to Ensure Courts Rrotect Children & Families by Putting the Bests Interests of Children First - MLRI has:

•Successfully opposed legislation that would force children into living approximately equally with both parents without considering whether such arrangements are in the best interests of the particular child

•Successfully opposed legislation that would force Massachusetts custodial parents whose custody order came from another state to re-litigate custody disputes in the other state upon demand by the non-custodial parent, even thought the child and parent  now live.  Forcing the parent to travel back to a state which no longer  has a connection to, or information about, the child would endanger custodial parents and children who have survived domestic violence, be unaffordable to low income parents, and would be disruptive to the lives of the children at issue.  

•Successfully opposed legislation that would have made it too difficult for custodial parents to move with their children to another state, even when move was in good faith and in the child’s best interest

Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Low Income Parents Know Their Rights - MLRI:

•Helps the court system to develop readable and usable forms

•Creates and posts timely and accurate legal information about family law and domestic violence on MassLegalHelp.org