Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: child support in massachusetts

A non-custodial parent must pay Guidelines child support until a child is 18 years old, whether the child is from a marriage or a non-marital pregnancy.

The court may (and virtually always WILL) order ongoing support for a child between age 18 and 21 so long as the child is domiciled with one parent and is principally dependent on the parent. Again, this is true whether the child is from a marriage or a non-marital pregnancy. As a practical matter, UNLESS the court order specifies otherwise, child support usually simply continues (and the order for DOR assignment usually specifies an "automatic" termination date of age 21 for non-marital children.

The court may (and virtually always WILL) order ongoing support for a child between age 21 and 23 and 21 so long as the child is was born of a marriage between the parties, is domiciled with one parent, is principally dependent on that parent, and is engaged in education beyond high school. This support may take the form of purely educational payments, but more often is a combination of weekly support and payment for college.

The legislative justification for ordering support of persons technically adults is that they need help in the transition to full adulthood, especially if they are seeking an education. The courts are quite comfortable with this, as they should be -- a high school diploma is rarely the ticket to unbounded wealth.

Gregory P. Lee

[email protected]

www.gregleelaw.com