Juvenile Court Rules  Rules for the Care and Protection of Children: Rule 13. Discovery

In any care and protection case in which the Department or a licensed placement agency is or becomes a party, the Department or the licensed placement agency shall produce for each party a copy of its entire social services file, including reports made pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 51A and § 51B, within sixty days from the date the case is commenced, or within sixty days from the date the Department or the licensed placement agency becomes a party, whichever is later. No party receiving material produced pursuant to this rule shall further duplicate or divulge the material to any person not a party to the case unless by order of court, except that counsel for a party may disclose the material to an expert retained by counsel. The expert shall not further duplicate or divulge the material and shall return the material to the counsel that retained him/her.

When producing a copy of its social services file in compliance with this rule, the Department or the licensed placement agency may withhold privileged material and work product of its attorney, and may withhold the names, and other reasonable, identifying data, of past or present foster parents of a child who is a subject of the case or of an adoptive parent or prospective adoptive parent of a child who is a subject of the case or of the reporter on reports made pursuant to G. L. c. 119, § 51A, subject to orders for further production.

The attorney for the Department or the licensed placement agency shall produce with the copy of the file a list of the materials and information withheld. The attorney for the Department or the licensed placement agency shall have an ongoing duty to produce for each other party on a timely basis any additions to the social services file made after initial production required in this subsection.

Other discovery may be had only by court order on such terms as the court prescribes. A court order shall be requested by motion in accordance with Rule 7.

Section A. See Juvenile Court Standing Order 1-84, Juvenile Court Case Records and Reports.