Massachusetts Statutes

Section 45. In contested cases before a probate court or before the supreme judicial court on appeal, costs and expenses in the discretion of the court may be awarded to either party, to be paid by the other, or may be awarded to either or both parties to be paid out of the estat…

Section 46. When personal service is required of any summons or citation issued by a probate court, the court may direct such service to be made by registered mail addressed to the party entitled thereto at his post office address. Further service may be ordered.

Section 47. The notice required in any proceeding in a probate court may be dispensed with if all parties entitled thereto assent in writing to such proceeding or waive notice.

Section 49. Parties to probate proceedings may select the newspapers in which the notices ordered upon their petitions shall be published, preference to be given to a newspaper, if any, published in the town where the deceased last dwelt, unless, in the judgment of the register, …

Section 5. Probate courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all matters relative to the administration of moneys appropriated by the congress of the United States on account of French spoliations.

Section 50. A paper or instrument, discharging a claim or purporting to acknowledge the performance of a duty or payment of money for which an executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, trustee or receiver is chargeable or accountable in a probate court, shall, upon the requ…

Section 52. The probate court in which a will has been duly proved, allowed and recorded may, after the expiration of twenty days within which an appeal may be taken from the decree admitting such will to probate, upon the petition of the executor or of a legatee named in such wi…

Section 53. The commonwealth shall provide and maintain suitable rooms for the use of the probate courts, ample fireproof rooms and suitable alcoves, cases and boxes for the safe keeping of all records, files, papers and documents, whether in physical or electronic form, belongin…

Section 54. If in the opinion of the court administrator of the trial court such fireproof rooms are insufficient, he shall certify the need of additional accommodations to the general court.

Section 55. If in the judgment of the chief justice public convenience so requires, he may, at the expense of the commonwealth, cause the files and records of the probate and family court department, within the respective divisions, to be rearranged, indexed and docketed, worn or…

Section 56. The expense of recording probate proceedings in Suffolk county, not exceeding forty-five hundred dollars in any one year, shall be paid by the commonwealth, upon the official certificate of the register, countersigned by a justice appointed to the division for said co…

Section 56A. Any judge of a probate court may appoint a guardian ad litem to investigate the facts of any proceeding pending in said court relating to or involving questions as to the care, custody or maintenance of minor children and as to any matter involving domestic relations…

Section 56B. Any judge of a probate court may appoint a guardian ad litem to institute contempt proceedings under the provisions of section thirty-four A against any party for failure to obey judgments of the probate court involving care, custody or maintenance of minor children,…

Section 56C. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law, to the contrary, the administrative office of the trial court shall transmit an order of the probate court appointing a guardian or conservator for an incapacitated person under Parts 3 or 4 of Article 5 of chapter 190B…

Section 57. The judge of a probate court may keep order in court, and may punish any contempt of his authority.

Section 58. The probate court shall be open daily on days other than Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, for hearings, matters in equity, proceedings in contempt and for making orders, judgments and decrees in matters before them, except that, if the convenience of the public …

Section 59. A judge of a probate court may adjourn court as occasion requires; and if he is absent at the time appointed for holding court, the register shall adjourn it as he may consider necessary or as the judge may order. The register may also adjourn court when the office of…

Section 6. The probate and family court department shall have original and concurrent jurisdiction with the supreme judicial court and the superior court department of all cases and matters of equity cognizable under the general principles of equity jurisprudence and, with refere…

Section 60. If the regular time for holding a probate court occurs on a legal holiday, the court shall not be open, and all notices, summonses, citations, orders and other papers which would otherwise be made returnable at said regular time shall be made returnable on the next se…

Section 62. The court shall be held by one of the justices, and when so held shall have and exercise all the power and jurisdiction committed to said court. The chief justice, after consultation with the chief justice of the trial court, shall make such assignments for the attend…

Section 6A. In any proceeding before a probate court, an attachment may be made by injunction to reach shares of stock or other property which cannot be reached to be attached in a civil action in which money damages are sought, and the property so attached shall thereafter be su…

Section 6C. Upon a complaint, after a judgment pursuant to this chapter relative to the care and custody of minor children, filed by either parent or by a next friend on behalf of the children, after notice to both parents, the court may make a judgment modifying its earlier judg…

Section 7. If a case is within the jurisdiction of the probate courts of two or more counties, the court first taking cognizance thereof by the commencement of proceedings therein shall retain jurisdiction thereof, and shall exclude the jurisdiction of the probate courts of all o…

Section 8A. If it appears before final judgment or decree in any proceeding pending in a probate court that said proceeding was begun in the wrong county, said court may order the proceeding with all papers relating thereto to be removed to the probate court for the proper county…

Section 9. A person aggrieved by an order, judgment, decree or denial of a probate court made after this chapter takes effect, may, within thirty days after the entry thereof, appeal therefrom to the appeals court or, subject to the provisions of section ten of chapter two hundre…

Section 9A. The acts of an executor, administrator, guardian, conservator or trustee performed after the entry of the decree appointing him in such capacity or authorizing or licensing him to sell, mortgage, or lease, real or personal property and prior to the expiration of the p…

Section 1. For each county there shall be a division of the probate and family court department of the trial court, and in each division except those for Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, Worcester, Plymouth, Hampden, Bristol, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, one appointment of an assoc…

Section 10. Bonds required to be given to the judge of probate shall be given, in case of vacancy in the office of judge, to the acting judge, and to his successors in office, and all business shall be done in his name or in the name of the probate court or the court of insolvenc…

Section 11. Judges of probate shall semi-annually inspect the doings of the registers of their courts, and see that the records and files are made up seasonably and kept in good order; and if the records are left incomplete for more than six consecutive months, such neglect, unle…

Section 12. Each register shall give bond to the state treasurer for the faithful performance of his official duties, in a sum not less than one thousand nor more than ten thousand dollars, as ordered by the judge, with one or more sureties approved by him.

Section 13. Upon the death, resignation, removal or absence of the register, if there is no assistant register, or if he also is absent, the judge shall appoint a temporary register to act until a register is qualified, or until the disability is removed. Such temporary register …

Section 14. The register shall certify upon his records and to the comptroller the number of days, the dates upon which, and the occasions for which, the duties of the judge of probate are performed by a judge of another county under section eight.

Section 15. The register shall have the care and custody of all books, documents and papers, whether in physical or electronic form, pertaining to his court, or deposited with the records of insolvency or filed in the registry of probate, and shall carefully preserve them and del…

Section 15A. The register or assistant register may print or type the name of any person whose signature appears on any instrument filed in the registry of probate and is not clearly legible, such name to be printed or typed directly below such signature.

Section 15B. Whenever the inventory or schedule filed by a fiduciary indicates that a decedent, ward, absentee or beneficiary owns or owned real estate in a registry district other than that in which the inventory or schedule is filed, the fiduciary shall cause to be inserted in …

Section 15C. The register in each county shall, upon the receipt of an inventory, filed in an estate matter being probated in his court, which contains as an asset an interest in real estate located in another county, send a certified copy of the will or petition for administrati…

Section 16. The register shall, except as herein provided, send by mail to the commissioner of revenue a copy of every inventory and appraisal filed in his court by an executor, administrator or trustee, within thirty days after the filing of the same. The register shall also, wi…

Section 16A. The register in each county shall, upon the request in writing of the board of assessors of any city or town in the register's county, furnish the board with copies of petitions, formal and informal, pursuant to sections 3–301 and 3–402 of chapter 190B, for probate o…

Section 17. The register shall forthwith report to the state secretary a vacancy in the office of assistant register and the name, residence and date of appointment of the person appointed to fill such vacancy.

Section 18. The register shall furnish copies of records or other papers in his custody and shall collect the legal fees therefor.

Section 19. Whenever any instrument creating or increasing an estate or fund for benevolent, charitable, humane or philanthropic purposes is filed for record in a registry of probate, the register shall forthwith send to the division of public charities established by section eig…

Section 2. There shall be six judges of probate in the county of Middlesex, four judges of probate in the counties of Norfolk, Bristol, Suffolk, Worcester and Plymouth, three judges of probate in each of the counties of Essex and Hampden, and two judges of probate in the county o…

Section 20. The register shall annually, on the first Mondays of January, April, July and October, account for and pay over to the state treasurer all fees and compensation which have been received by him otherwise than by salary.

Section 21. He may at any time receive and place on file complaints, petitions and applications to the probate court or the court of insolvency, and may issue orders of notice, summonses and citations in like manner and with like effect as if issued by the judge; but if the judge…

Section 22. The register may issue process of attachment and of execution, and all other processes and all warrants, letters and licenses necessary to carry into effect any order, judgment or decree of the courts, and they may run into any county and shall be executed and obeyed …

Section 22A. Whenever the register, in any communication, document or writing intended for use outside the registry, identifies a husband and wife, he shall use the name of both husband and wife and shall not use a legal phrase as a substitute for either name.