Mass. General Laws c.209C § 6

Presumption of parentage; mandatory joinder

This is an unofficial version of a Massachusetts General Law. For more information on this topic, please see:

• Law about surrogate parenting
• Law about parentage

Updates

Amended by St. 2024, c. 166, §§ 25-31, effective January 1, 2025

Section 6

(a)

A person is presumed to be the parent of a child and shall be joined as a party in all actions under this chapter if:

• (1) the person is or has been married to the person who gave birth to the child and the child was born during the marriage, or within three hundred days after the marriage was terminated by death, annulment or divorce; or
• (2) before the child's birth, the person married or attempted to marry the person who gave birth to the child by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child was born during the attempted marriage or within three hundred days after its termination; or
• (3) after the child's birth, the person married or attempted to marry the person who gave birth to the child by a marriage solemnized in apparent compliance with law, although the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and
  • (i) the person agreed to support the child under a written voluntary promise, or
  • (ii) the person has engaged in any other conduct which can be construed as an acknowledgment of parentage; or
• (4) while the child is under the age of majority, he, jointly with the person who gave birth to the child, received the child into their home and openly held out the child as their child; or
• (5) the person has acknowledged parentage in a parental responsibility claim as provided in section 4A of chapter 210 and the person who gave birth to the child, having received actual notice thereof, has failed within a reasonable time, to object thereto; or
• (6) with respect to a child born before April 13, 1994, with the person’s consent and the consent of the person who gave birth to the child, the person is named as the child’s parent on the birth certificate as provided in section one of chapter forty-six.

(b)

Notwithstanding subsection (a), a spouse or former spouse shall not be required to be joined as a party if that person’s non-parentage of the child has previously been adjudicated in a proceeding between the spouse and the person who gave birth to the child in a court or administrative agency of competent jurisdiction.

(c)

Notice to a party joined as herein provided shall be sufficient if the summons is mailed to the last known address by a form of mail requiring a receipt and, if actual notice shall not be made as aforesaid, by publishing a copy of the notice once in each of three successive weeks in a newspaper designated by the court.

Last updated:	August 8, 2024