To file for visitation rights in Massachusetts, you submit a complaint in the Probate and Family Court for the county where the child lives, asking a judge to set a parenting time schedule. The filing fee is $100 plus a $15 surcharge, and you will also need to serve the other parent, complete a mandatory co-parenting course, and attend any hearings the court schedules. The judge decides based on what arrangement serves the child’s best interests.
Confirm You Have Standing to File
Before anything else, make sure the law recognizes your relationship to the child. Legal parents can file. For mothers and married fathers, parentage is usually automatic. Unmarried fathers must establish parentage first, either by signing a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage with the mother or by asking the court to determine parentage, which may involve genetic testing.1Mass.gov. About Establishing Parentage Without established parentage, the court cannot grant you visitation, so handle that step first.
Grandparents can file, but only in narrow circumstances: the parents must be divorced, living apart under a court order, or one or both parents must have died. Grandparents of a child born to unmarried parents may file if the parents live apart and paternity has been legally established, though maternal grandparents do not need a paternity adjudication.2General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 119 Section 39D If the child has been adopted by anyone other than a stepparent, grandparent visitation is off the table. Even when a grandparent has standing, the court must find in writing that visitation serves the child’s best interest, and under Troxel v. Granville judges give special weight to a fit parent’s decision about who spends time with the child.3Legal Information Institute. Troxel v. Granville
Choose the Right Complaint Form
The form depends on whether you were ever married to the other parent. These are separate legal tracks, and the wrong one will delay your case.
If you were never married, file a Complaint for Custody, Support, and Parenting Time (form CJD 109). This is the main document that opens your case.4Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Complaint for Support, Custody, Parenting Time Pursuant to G.L. c. 209C
If you are married, you cannot use the CJD 109. Visitation and custody are handled through a divorce filing or a complaint for separate support instead.5Mass.gov. Filing for Child Custody or Parenting Time in Massachusetts Already in a divorce? Request parenting time as part of that case rather than opening a second one.
Gather Your Documents
Collect the full legal names, dates of birth, and current addresses for yourself, the other parent, and the child. Along with the complaint, you must file:
- A Child Care or Custody Disclosure Affidavit, which tells the court whether any other legal proceedings involving the child are pending anywhere, including in other states.6Mass.gov. Instructions: Complaint for Custody, Support, and Parenting Time
- A Financial Statement. If your annual income is under $75,000, use the short form (CJD 301S). If your income is $75,000 or more, use the long form (CJD 301L), which requires more detailed disclosures. The court uses this when setting child support alongside parenting time.7Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Financial Statement (Short Form) (CJD 301S)8Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Financial Statement (Long Form)
File at the Right Court and Pay the Fee
File in the Probate and Family Court division for the county where the child lives. Electronic filing is available 24 hours a day in all 14 Probate and Family Court divisions, and Chapter 209C custody-support-parenting time cases are eligible.9Mass.gov. eFiling in the Probate and Family Court You can also file in person or by mail.
The fee for a Complaint for Custody, Support, and Parenting Time is $100, plus a $15 surcharge.10Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Filing Fees If you cannot afford it, file an Affidavit of Indigency. Massachusetts allows anyone who demonstrates financial hardship to request that the state cover court costs.11Mass.gov. Indigency (Waiver of Court Fees)
One jurisdictional note before you file: Massachusetts courts can hear your case only if the state qualifies as the child’s “home state” under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, generally meaning the child lived here with a parent for the six consecutive months before filing.12General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 209B Section 1 If the child recently moved out of state, you may need to file where they now live.
Serve the Other Parent
After the court accepts your filing, the clerk issues a summons. You must have a sheriff or constable hand-deliver the summons and a copy of your complaint to the other parent. You cannot deliver them yourself. If the other parent is willing to acknowledge receipt by signing, you can mail or hand the papers to them directly, but that only works if they cooperate.
Once delivery is done, a proof of service listing the date, time, and method must be filed with the court. Without it, the case cannot move forward. Process server fees vary and are separate from the filing fee.
Complete the Co-Parenting Course
Massachusetts requires parents in contested custody and parenting time cases to complete a four-hour online course called “Two Families Now.” It costs $49 per parent, and you can ask the court to waive the fee if you cannot afford it.13Mass.gov. Parent Education: Notice to Parents for Mandatory Co-Parenting Education Course After registering, you have 30 days to finish. The completion certificate must then be filed with the court within 14 days. A judge can waive the requirement in some situations, but waivers are the exception.
What Happens After You File
Temporary Orders
From filing to final judgment can take months, and a child’s schedule cannot wait. File a motion for temporary orders asking the court to set an interim parenting time schedule while the case proceeds. The court schedules a hearing, hears both sides, and issues a temporary order that stays in place until a new order or final judgment replaces it.14Mass.gov. Get an Immediate Child Custody or Parenting Time Order
Mediation and Dispute Resolution
A judge may require you and the other parent to attend a screening for court-connected dispute resolution. Options include mediation, where a neutral person helps you reach an agreement, or “dispute intervention,” where a probation officer helps resolve disagreements at no cost.15Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Approved Alternative Dispute Resolution ADR Programs If you reach an agreement, you can present it to the judge, who can adopt it as a court order.
Guardian ad Litem Investigation
In contested cases, the court may appoint a Guardian ad Litem to gather facts and report to the judge. The GAL may interview both parents, visit each household, talk to teachers or counselors, and submit a written report. If the judge authorizes it, the GAL can also include recommendations.16Mass.gov. Standard 1: The Role of the GAL Investigator GAL fees typically run several thousand dollars, and the court decides how costs are split between the parents, often based on each party’s finances.
What the Judge Weighs
Judges do not follow a rigid checklist, but for children of unmarried parents the law directs them to look at who has been the child’s primary caretaker, where and with whom the child has lived in the six months before filing, and whether each parent has built a meaningful relationship with the child.17Mass.gov. Mass. General Laws c.209C Section 10
Domestic violence weighs heavily. If the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a pattern of abuse or a serious incident of abuse occurred, there is a rebuttable presumption that placing the child in the abusive parent’s custody is not in the child’s best interest.17Mass.gov. Mass. General Laws c.209C Section 10 Even when an abusive parent receives visitation, the court can impose supervised visits, exchanges in protected settings, required completion of a batterer’s treatment program, or a prohibition on overnight stays.
Enforcing the Order Later
A visitation order on paper and the parenting time you were promised are two different things. If the other parent refuses to follow the schedule, calling the police rarely helps; police enforce criminal laws, not family court orders.
The remedy is a Complaint for Contempt (form CJD 103), filed in the same Probate and Family Court that issued the original order. The summons fee is $5. You serve the complaint on the other parent, and the court schedules a hearing.18Mass.gov. Probate and Family Court Complaint for Contempt (CJD 103) If the judge finds a willful violation, consequences can include make-up parenting time, changes to the custody arrangement, attorney’s fees, or jail time in extreme cases. Documenting every missed visit with dates and details strengthens a contempt filing.
Changing the Order When Circumstances Change
You can file a Complaint for Modification to update an existing parenting time order, but you must show a material and substantial change in circumstances since the original order and that the modification serves the child’s best interests.19General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 208 Section 28 Routine disagreements or minor schedule inconveniences generally do not meet that threshold. A parent moving to another state, evidence of abuse or neglect, or a child developing serious medical or educational needs that were not present at the time of the original order are more likely to qualify. If the child’s health or safety is at immediate risk, you can ask the court to act on an emergency basis rather than wait for a regular hearing.