Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: emancipation

Is your son attending college full-time?

Is he working?

Is the college distant from home?

It is not uncommon for kids to live off-campus. If your son simly prefers his own digs to living in a dorm, were it might be noisy. there will likely be no problem.

As to your ex having to contribute. That depends on the terms and the wording of the Judgment of Divorce or of the Settlement Agreement.

You do not give enough info for a definitve answer to be given.

Re: emancipation

Living in an apartment is in itself not emancipation, unless your divorce agreement, if any, defines it as such. The fact that you seem to assume the only problem is emancipation implies that your ex is willing to pay half of the college expenses, but again the question is what does the divorce agreement provide? If your ex is not agreed, then the answer gets more complicated, because it depends on his financial ability to contribute, which may be determined by a judge to be nothing or less than 50%, and on whether he is attending Harvard or a state college.