Probate and Family Court Rules  Probate and Family Court Standing Order 1-26: In-person and remote hearings

1. Email filings are not required to be accepted, except when done so by a Court Service Center staff member or by an attorney volunteering through a Lawyer for the Day program on behalf of a self-represented litigant, or if specifically authorized by the SJC or the Executive Office of the Trial Court.
2. Electronic signatures shall continue to be used, consistent with the current order of the SJC, unless and until otherwise amended by subsequent orders or rules.

The Probate and Family Court shall schedule in-person hearings for all matters, except for the matters identified in Paragraph C below, and any matter that a judge determines shall be held remotely.  In-person hearings shall be conducted on a staggered schedule.

Where an in-person hearing is scheduled, a party may request that the hearing be conducted remotely, and the judge shall rule on the request.

Alternatively, a judge, upon request, may authorize a participant (an attorney, party, or witness) to appear remotely while other participants appear in person, consistent with due process and fundamental fairness. A participant who requests to appear remotely for an otherwise in-person proceeding shall have no grounds to object to other participants appearing in person.

Hearings on the following matters shall presumptively be held remotely and on a staggered schedule, unless the assigned judge determines that the matter should be heard in person or handled administratively.

1. Adoption
2. Joint Petition for Divorce 
3. Child support hearing held in Case Conferencing Sessions
4. Treatment plan review
5. Failure to file guardian case plan report hearing
6. Permanency plan review/best efforts § 29B annual review of children in DCF custody
7. Complaint for dependency § 39M
8. Case Management/Status/Scheduling conference
9. Discovery dispute (e.g., motion to compel, motion to quash)
10. Motion to continue non-trial events
11. Motion to dismiss
12. Motion to amend a complaint/petition, if hearing is warranted
13. Motion for assessment of attorney’s fees
14. Motion for attorney’s fees pendente lite
15. Motion that does not require an evidentiary hearing

Absent exceptional circumstances, as determined by the judge conducting the hearing, no party or attorney for a party may be physically present in the courtroom for a scheduled remote hearing.

In cases with one or more self-represented litigants, judges shall consider the possibility that self-represented litigants may have limited access to the technology needed or limited experience with such technology, and either assist the self-represented litigant or offer the option to appear in person.

No person shall take any photographs, or make any recording or transmission by electronic means, of a remote or hybrid court hearing, without prior authorization from the judge or register having immediate supervision over the remote or hybrid hearing, consistent with Supreme Judicial Court Rule 1:19, which governs electronic access to the courts.

For purposes of public access to in-person, remote, or hybrid hearings that are open to the public, members of the public may access court hearings as follows:

1. For in-person hearings, where no party appears remotely, members of the public shall attend in person.
2. For remote hearings, where all parties attend remotely, members of the public may access the hearing remotely.
3. For hybrid hearings, where at least one party attends in person, while at least one other party or participant appears remotely, members of the public shall attend in person.
   
   Members of the public may seek permission from the court to access a hybrid hearing remotely.

Public access to remote hearings shall be provided through phone access to each session. The phone numbers shall be available through the Probate and Family Court website.

Members of the public seeking specific information or instructions on public access to in-person, remote, or hybrid hearings in a particular case shall contact the Register’s Office for further details.

Matters that are handled administratively shall continue to be handled administratively. These matters include, but are not limited to: marriage without delay; joint modification; confirmation of parental appointment of Guardians, uncontested/assented to motions (e.g., appointment of GAL; continue date of hearing; file marriage certificate late); and uncontested/routine allowables in probate actions (e.g., informal petition; transfer of guardianship or conservatorship from another state; accounts; appointment of GAL; license to sell; alternative service; waiver of sureties; motion to file death certificate late). If such a matter is not handled administratively, a remote hearing shall be scheduled.

A judge may also consider matters through an administrative review process and determine motions in accordance with Rule 78.