Massachusetts Statutes

Section 20A. If, after a hearing, the allegations of an action for divorce are not sustained, the court may, if the facts warrant, enter a judgment denying the divorce and making a finding that the plaintiff is living apart from the defendant for justifiable cause, and may make s…

Section 21. Judgments of divorce shall in the first instance be judgments nisi, and shall become absolute after the expiration of ninety days from the entry thereof, unless the court within said period, for sufficient cause, upon application of any party to the action, otherwise …

Section 22. In order to establish grounds for divorce for desertion, the plaintiff shall establish that the defendant left voluntarily and without justification and with intent not to return, that at the time such defendant left, the plaintiff did not consent thereto, and that th…

Section 23. The court granting a divorce may allow a woman to resume her maiden name or that of a former husband.

Section 24. After a judgment of divorce has become absolute, either party may marry again as if the other were dead.

Section 24A. The court, in issuing a copy of, or a certificate relating to, a decree of divorce entered by it, shall cause to be printed or written thereon the provisions of sections twenty-one and twenty-four.

Section 25. A divorce for adultery committed by the wife shall not affect the legitimacy of the issue of the marriage, but such legitimacy, if questioned, shall be tried and determined according to the course of the common law.

Section 27. After a divorce, a husband or wife shall not be entitled to curtesy or dower in the land of the other spouse.

Section 28. Upon a judgment for divorce, the court may make such judgment as it considers expedient relative to the care, custody and maintenance of the minor children of the parties and may determine with which of the parents the children or any of them shall remain or may award…

Section 28A. During the pendency of an action seeking a modification of a judgment for divorce, upon motion of either party or of a next friend on behalf of the minor children of the parties and notice to the other party or parties, the court may make temporary orders relative to…

Section 29. If, after a divorce has been adjudged in another jurisdiction, minor children of the marriage are inhabitants of, or residents in this commonwealth, the probate court for the county in which said minors or any of them are inhabitants or residents, upon an action of ei…

Section 3. A divorce may be adjudged for any of the causes allowed by sections one, one B, or two although the defendant has been continuously absent for such time and under such circumstances as would raise a presumption of death.

Section 30. A minor child of divorced parents who is a native of or has resided five years within this commonwealth and over whose custody and maintenance a probate court has jurisdiction shall not, if of suitable age to signify his consent, be removed out of this commonwealth wi…

Section 31. For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meaning unless the context requires otherwise: ''Sole legal custody'', one parent shall have the right and responsibility to make major decisions regarding the child's welfare including mat…

Section 31A. In issuing any temporary or permanent custody order, the probate and family court shall consider evidence of past or present abuse toward a parent or child as a factor contrary to the best interest of the child. For the purposes of this section, ''abuse'' shall mean …

Section 32. Any court having jurisdiction of actions for divorce or nullity of marriage, separate support, or maintenance, or of any other proceeding in which the care and custody of any child is drawn in question, may issue a writ of habeas corpus to bring before it such child. …

Section 33. The court may, if the course of proceeding is not specially prescribed, hear and determine all matters coming within the purview of this chapter according to the course of proceedings in ecclesiastical courts or in courts of equity, and may issue process of attachment…

Section 34. Upon divorce or upon a complaint in an action brought at any time after a divorce, whether such a divorce has been adjudged in this commonwealth or another jurisdiction, the court of the commonwealth, provided there is personal jurisdiction over both parties, may make…

Section 34A. Whenever a judgment for alimony shall be made in a proceeding for divorce directing that a deed, conveyance or release of any real estate or interest therein shall be made such judgment shall create an equitable right to its enforcement, subject to the provisions for…

Section 34B. Any court having jurisdiction of actions for divorce, or for nullity of marriage or of separate support or maintenance, may, upon commencement of such action and during the pendency thereof, order the husband or wife to vacate forthwith the marital home for a period …

Section 34C. Whenever a division of the probate and family court department issues an order to vacate under the provisions of section thirty-four B, or an order prohibiting a person from imposing any restraint on the personal liberty of another person under section eighteen or un…

Section 34D. Upon the filing of a request for a restraining order pursuant to section eighteen or for an order for a spouse to vacate the marital home pursuant to section thirty-four B, a petitioner shall be informed that the proceedings hereunder are civil in nature and that vio…

Section 35. The court may enforce judgments, including foreign decrees, for allowance, alimony or allowance in the nature of alimony, in the same manner as it may enforce judgments in equity.

Section 36. When alimony or support is adjudged for the spouse or children, the court may require sufficient security for its payment according to the judgment. Each judgment or order of support which is issued, reviewed or modified pursuant to this chapter shall conform to and s…

Section 36A. (1) In any case in which an obligor is under court order to pay alimony or support and maintenance or child support in an action or judgment for divorce under this chapter or in an action or judgment for separate support under chapter two hundred and nine, the court …

Section 37. After a judgment for alimony or an annual allowance for the spouse or children, the court may, from time to time, upon the action for modification of either party, revise and alter its judgment relative to the amount of such alimony or annual allowance and the payment…

Section 38. In any proceeding under this chapter, whether original or subsidiary, the court may, in its discretion, award costs and expenses, or either, to either party, whether or not the marital relation has terminated. In any case wherein costs and expenses, or either, may be …

Section 39. A divorce adjudged in another jurisdiction according to the laws thereof by a court having jurisdiction of the cause and of both the parties shall be valid and effectual in this commonwealth; but if an inhabitant of this commonwealth goes into another jurisdiction to …

Section 4. A divorce shall not, except as provided in the following section, be adjudged if the parties have never lived together as husband and wife in this commonwealth; nor for a cause which occurred in another jurisdiction, unless before such cause occurred the parties had li…

Section 40. Persons divorced from each other cohabiting as husband and wife or living together in the same house shall be held to be guilty of adultery.

Section 41. Whoever falsely personates another or wilfully and fraudulently procures a person so to do, or fraudulently procures false testimony to be given, or makes a false or fraudulent return of service of process in an action for divorce or in any proceeding connected therew…

Section 42. Whoever knowingly procures or obtains or assists another to procure or obtain any false, counterfeit or fraudulent divorce or judgment of divorce, or any divorce or judgment of divorce from a court of another state for or in favor of a person who at the time of making…

Section 43. Whoever writes, prints or publishes, or solicits another to write, print or publish, any notice, circular or advertisement soliciting employment in the business of procuring divorces or offering inducements for the purpose of procuring such employment shall be punishe…

Section 44. Whoever, except in compliance with an order of a court of competent jurisdiction, gives, signs or issues any writing purporting to grant a divorce to persons who are husband and wife according to the laws of the commonwealth, or purporting to be a certificate that a d…

Section 45. If a divorce is granted for a cause constituting a crime, committed within the commonwealth and within the time provided by law for making complaints and finding indictments therefor, the court granting the divorce may, in its discretion, cause notice of such facts to…

Section 46. The registers of probate shall receive the statistical reports filed pursuant to section six B; and shall, upon a divorce becoming absolute, add to the information contained therein the date and number of the judgment, the cause for which the divorce was granted, and …

Section 48. As used in sections 49 to 55, inclusive, the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Alimony'', the payment of support from a spouse, who has the ability to pay, to a spouse in need of support for a reasonable leng…

Section 49. (a) General term alimony shall terminate upon the remarriage of the recipient or the death of either spouse; provided, however, that the court may require the payor spouse to provide life insurance or another form of reasonable security for payment of sums due to the …

Section 5. If the plaintiff has lived in this commonwealth for one year last preceding the commencement of the action if the cause occurred without the commonwealth, or if the plaintiff is domiciled within the commonwealth at the time of the commencement of the action and the cau…

Section 50. (a) Rehabilitative alimony shall terminate upon the remarriage of the recipient, the occurrence of a specific event in the future or the death of either spouse; provided, however, that the court may require the payor to provide reasonable security for payment of sums …

Section 51. (a) Reimbursement alimony shall terminate upon the death of the recipient or a date certain. (b) Once ordered, the parties shall not seek and the court shall not order a modification of reimbursement alimony. (c) Income guidelines in subsection (b) of section 53 shall…

Section 52. (a) Transitional alimony shall terminate upon the death of the recipient or a date certain that is not longer than 3 years from the date of the parties' divorce; provided, however, that the court may require the payor to provide reasonable security for payment of sums…

Section 53. (a) In determining the appropriate form of alimony and in setting the amount and duration of support, a court shall consider: the length of the marriage; age of the parties; health of the parties; income, employment and employability of both parties, including employa…

Section 54. (a) In the event of the payor's remarriage, income and assets of the payor's spouse shall not be considered in a redetermination of alimony in a modification action. (b) Income from a second job or overtime work shall be presumed immaterial to alimony modification if:…

Section 55. (a) The court may require reasonable security for alimony in the event of the payor's death during the alimony period. Security may include, but shall not be limited to, maintenance of life insurance. (b) Orders to maintain life insurance shall be based upon due consi…

Section 56. (a) A law of a jurisdiction outside the commonwealth that authorizes a child to be removed from the care or custody of a parent or guardian based on the parent or guardian allowing their child to receive gender-affirming health care services, as defined in section 11I…