April 27, 2016
By Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Founder and Acting Executive Director, National Parents Organization
Here’s an update on the re-write of the custody statute in Massachusetts. Regular readers know that a total re-write was suggested by an 18-member “Governor’s Working Group” on which I and others sat. The suggestions were made into a bill, which until recently was known as S834. The bill has had a lot of momentum.
But the Judiciary Committee re-wrote parts of the bill under pressure from the bar associations. We cannot live with some of the changes. The redrafted bill is now known as H1207.
I and others have been meeting with the Judiciary Committee to see what can be restored to H1207. The answers are likely, but not guaranteed, to be clearer within the next few weeks.
At that point, we will let our members know whether we recommend they support or oppose the bill. Either way, we will need hundreds of members to call or email their legislatures to urge them to act, hopefully in the way we recommend.