Massachusetts Paternity and Parentage Lawyers

Massachusetts law separates two questions that often get treated as one. Parentage is legal recognition as a child’s parent. Custody is where the child lives and who makes decisions. Parentage comes first, and without it, a parent cannot ask a court for custody or parenting time at all.

The chapter governing these cases, M.G.L. c. 209C, was substantially rewritten effective January 1, 2025. It is now titled Nonmarital Children and Parentage of Children, and it uses the word parentage where it previously used paternity.

What is the difference between parentage and custody?

Parentage is the legal status as a child’s parent. Custody is a court order about where the child lives and who decides. They are established separately and by different means. A person can be a legal parent with no custody order in place, and parentage is what gives them standing to seek one.

Under M.G.L. c. 209C § 10, the person who gave birth has custody of a nonmarital child before parentage is established, and continues to have custody after parentage is acknowledged or adjudicated, unless a Probate and Family Court order provides otherwise.

Establishing parentage is a sufficient basis for seeking an order of support, visitation or custody.
It does not, by itself, change who has custody of the child.
Changing custody requires either a court order or an agreement the court has reviewed and approved.

How is paternity or parentage established in Massachusetts?

Through one of several routes. A person may be a presumed parent by operation of statute. The parents may jointly sign a voluntary acknowledgment of parentage. A court may adjudicate parentage in an action under chapter 209C. Genetic testing is one route to adjudication, not the only path to legal parentage.

A statutory presumption under section 6, which applies automatically when the listed circumstances exist.
A voluntary acknowledgment of parentage under section 11, signed by both parents and filed with the registrar of vital records and statistics or with the court.
An adjudication by the Probate and Family Court in an action brought under the chapter.
For children conceived through assisted reproduction, a route for intended parents, added effective January 1, 2025.
For a person who has functioned as a parent without a biological or adoptive tie, adjudication as a de facto parent.

Who is presumed to be a parent under Massachusetts law?

Section 6 lists the circumstances. The broadest is marriage: a person married to the person who gave birth is presumed to be the child’s parent where the child was born during the marriage, or within three hundred days after the marriage ended by death, annulment, or divorce. M.G.L. c. 209C § 6 sets out the full list.

Marriage to the person who gave birth, where the child was born during the marriage or within three hundred days after it was terminated by death, annulment or divorce.
A marriage or attempted marriage before the birth, where the child was born during it or within three hundred days after its termination.
A marriage or attempted marriage after the birth, combined with either a written voluntary promise to support the child or other conduct that can be construed as an acknowledgment of parentage.
Receiving the child into the home jointly with the person who gave birth, and openly holding the child out as their own, while the child is under the age of majority.
Acknowledging parentage in a parental responsibility claim under chapter 210, section 4A, where the person who gave birth had actual notice and did not object within a reasonable time.
For a child born before April 13, 1994, being named as the child’s parent on the birth certificate with the consent of both parties.

The statute is written in terms of a person and the person who gave birth, so the presumptions apply regardless of gender. A presumed parent must be joined as a party in every action under the chapter, unless that person’s non-parentage was already adjudicated in a prior proceeding. Where a joined party cannot be reached by mail requiring a receipt, notice may be given by publication once in each of three successive weeks.

What does a voluntary acknowledgment of parentage do?

A signed and filed acknowledgment is a sufficient basis for seeking an order of support, visitation or custody, with no further proceeding needed to establish parentage. Once sixty days have passed without rescission, it has the same force and effect as a judgment of parentage.

The requirements are set out in M.G.L. c. 209C § 11. No judicial proceeding is required, or permitted, to ratify an acknowledgment that has not been challenged.

It is executed jointly by the person who gave birth and the alleged genetic parent, presumed parent, or intended parent. Either signatory may be a minor.
It is filed with the registrar of vital records and statistics or with the court, and must be attested before a notary public.
It must include the residence addresses and Social Security numbers of each parent, the residence address of the child, and the child’s Social Security number where available.
A report from the approved electronic birth registration system showing that an acknowledgment was executed and filed is presumed to be a sufficient basis for seeking support, visitation or custody.
An acknowledgment executed outside Massachusetts is valid here if it was taken in accordance with the laws of the state or country where it was signed.

Can a voluntary acknowledgment be undone?

Within sixty days of signing, either signatory may rescind it. After that, the acknowledgment carries the same force and effect as a judgment of parentage, and it is subject to challenge for one year only on the basis of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact.

The sixty-day window can close early. Where a signatory becomes party to an administrative or judicial proceeding related to the child before the sixty days run, including a proceeding to establish support, visitation or custody, and does not rescind at that proceeding, the acknowledgment has the force of a judgment from that point forward.

To rescind, the person must within sixty days either file a notarized rescission with the Department of Public Health, or file a petition in the Probate and Family Court for the county where the child and one of the parents reside, with notice to the other parent.
If neither parent lives in the same county as the child, the petition is filed where the child lives.
The person seeking to rescind bears the burden of proof.
Responsibilities arising from the acknowledgment are not suspended while a challenge is pending, unless the court orders otherwise for good cause shown.
Where rescission is timely and the acknowledgment was based on genetic parentage, the court orders genetic marker testing. The rescinded acknowledgment is itself the showing required to order that testing, and is admissible as evidence of parentage.

When will a court order a paternity test in Massachusetts?

When a party asks and makes a proper showing. In a case to establish parentage based on genetics, M.G.L. c. 209C § 17 directs the court to order the person who gave birth, the child and the alleged genetic parent to submit to genetic marker testing. An affidavit from the person who gave birth or the alleged genetic parent stating that intercourse occurred during the probable period of conception is enough.

The statute calls these genetic marker tests. They must be of a type generally acknowledged as reliable and performed by a laboratory approved by an accreditation body designated by the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services.

If the person who gave birth was married to someone else during the probable period of conception, the court may order testing only after that spouse or former spouse receives notice.
The Department of Revenue, acting as the Commonwealth’s child support agency, may also order a person properly made a party to submit to testing.
A report showing a statistical probability of parentage of ninety-seven percent or greater creates a rebuttable presumption that the alleged genetic parent is the parent of the child, and the court must then issue a temporary support order on a party’s motion or its own.
The report is admissible without further proof of authenticity or accuracy unless a party objects to the results in writing within the time the statute sets. It is not evidence that intercourse occurred, and it is not admissible without sufficient evidence of intercourse during the probable period of conception.
Where the results are disputed, the court may order an additional test at the same or a different laboratory, at the expense of the party requesting it.
A refusal to submit to testing is admissible, and the court may draw an adverse inference from it.

Who pays for a court-ordered paternity test?

The party who asks for it, in the first instance. Section 17 charges the cost of court-ordered testing to the moving party, permits the court to apportion it among the parties, and requires an alleged genetic parent who is found to be the parent to reimburse the Department of Revenue or the other party. In Department of Revenue cases, the agency most often pays.

Where a party responsible for the cost is indigent, the court may direct the Commonwealth to pay it.
The Department of Revenue collects samples by cheek swab. It typically tests the mother, the child and the alleged father, and sometimes only the child and the alleged father. Results are mailed to both parties.
Where there are safety concerns, the Department can schedule the parties’ appointments on different days.
Genetic testing cannot be used to challenge the parentage of a person who is a parent through de facto parentage, assisted reproduction or a surrogacy agreement, or to establish that a donor is a parent.
Where a person challenges an existing parentage based on genetic test results, section 26 has the court decide in the child’s best interest and also weigh how the person learned they might not be the genetic parent and how long they waited after that before bringing the case.

Does establishing parentage give a parent custody?

No. The person who gave birth has custody of a nonmarital child both before parentage is established and after it is acknowledged or adjudicated, unless a Probate and Family Court order provides otherwise. Parentage supplies the standing to ask for custody. A court order supplies the custody.

A court may award unmarried parents joint custody in only two situations: where they have entered into an agreement under section 11, or where the court finds they successfully exercised joint responsibility for the child before the proceedings began and have the ability to communicate and plan with each other concerning the child’s best interests.

In awarding custody to one parent, the court must preserve the child’s relationship with the primary caretaker parent to the extent possible.
The court considers where and with whom the child resided during the six months immediately preceding the proceedings.

Can unmarried parents agree on custody and parenting time?

Yes. Parents who execute a voluntary acknowledgment may also make agreements about custody, support, and visitation. An agreement covering custody or visitation must be filed with the Probate and Family Court division for the district or county where the child and one parent live.

Once filed and approved, the agreement has the same force and effect as a judgment of the court. The court will approve an agreement covering custody or visitation only if it finds the agreement to be in the child’s best interests, and it retains the same power to investigate the facts regarding custody, support, and visitation that it would have had if no agreement had been filed.

What changed under the Massachusetts Parentage Act?

The Massachusetts Parentage Act, St. 2024, c. 166, took effect January 1, 2025. It renamed chapter 209C, replaced paternity with parentage throughout, removed gendered language, and added twenty sections addressing de facto parentage, assisted reproduction, and surrogacy.

The chapter now opens with a definitions section covering terms including assisted reproduction, donor, genetic surrogate, parent, intended parent and presumed parent.
The presumptions in section 6 are written in terms of a person and the person who gave birth, rather than a husband and a mother.
Section 11 previously allowed a voluntary acknowledgment to be signed only by the putative father and the mother. The Act opened it to an alleged genetic parent, presumed parent or intended parent, signing with the person who gave birth, and limited court-ordered genetic testing after a timely rescission to acknowledgments based on genetic parentage.
Section 26 governs competing claims of parentage, and the amendments permit a court to recognize that a child has more than two legal parents. The 2025 Child Support Guidelines added corresponding provisions for calculating support in that situation.

Content written about Massachusetts paternity before 2025 uses terminology the Legislature has since retired, and does not account for the routes to parentage the Act created.

Can a person who is not biologically related establish parentage?

Yes, through more than one route. The holding-out presumption reaches a person who received the child into their home jointly with the person who gave birth and openly held the child out as their own. The Act also codified de facto parentage and created a path for intended parents.

Holding out is a statutory presumption under section 6, not a discretionary finding. Where the circumstances exist, the presumption applies.
De facto parentage, codified at section 25, covers a person who has functioned as a parent without a biological or adoptive tie. The statute sets out the standards and factors, and the child’s best interest governs.
For children conceived through assisted reproduction, section 27 provides a route for an intended parent to establish parentage, and section 11 permits an intended parent to sign a voluntary acknowledgment. The statute provides that a gamete donor is not a parent of a child conceived through assisted reproduction.
The Act also established a statutory framework for surrogacy agreements.

Does establishing parentage create a child support obligation?

Yes. Chapter 209C provides for the support of a nonmarital child, and the Child Support Guidelines apply in every case establishing or modifying a support order regardless of whether the parents are married. The same worksheet and the same presumptive amount apply.

Two rebuttable presumptions apply in every case: that the Guidelines govern, and that the amount the worksheet produces is the appropriate amount of support.
Those presumptions apply whether the parents are married or unmarried, and whether the order is temporary or final.
Obligations arising from a voluntary acknowledgment are not suspended while a challenge to that acknowledgment is pending, unless the court orders otherwise for good cause.

Which court handles a paternity or parentage case?

Parentage can be established in the Probate and Family Court, the District Court or the Boston Municipal Court, which share jurisdiction over parentage complaints under M.G.L. c. 209C § 3. The case is filed in the county where the child and one parent live. A request for custody or parenting time belongs in the Probate and Family Court.

If neither parent lives in the child’s county, section 4 places the case where the child lives, and a later case between the same parents may be filed where an earlier, undismissed one was brought.
A child who was conceived, born or lives outside Massachusetts can still be the subject of a parentage case here.
Where the other parent lives in another state, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act allows a Massachusetts court to reach that parent on listed grounds, including that the child may have been conceived through intercourse in Massachusetts or that the person asserted parentage of the child under chapter 46 or chapter 209C.
A petition to rescind an acknowledgment, and an agreement covering custody or visitation, are filed in the Probate and Family Court for the county where the child and one parent live.
Plymouth County has two Probate and Family Court locations, in Brockton and Plymouth, and both list the same towns, including Hanover, Hingham, Norwell and Marshfield. Each other county, Essex and Barnstable among them, has its own division.

Request a case evaluation

O’Connor Family Law has offices in Westborough and Hanover and represents parents throughout Central and Eastern Massachusetts, including Worcester, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Bristol counties, in paternity, parentage, custody and support matters. Request a free case evaluation to go over your situation, your options, and whether the firm is the right fit for your case.

Frequently asked questions about paternity and parentage in Massachusetts

Does signing the birth certificate establish parentage?

Not by itself. Being named on the birth certificate creates a presumption of parentage only for a child born before April 13, 1994. For children born since then, parentage is established by presumption, by a voluntary acknowledgment, or by court adjudication. A report from the approved electronic birth registration system showing that an acknowledgment was executed and filed is presumed to be a sufficient basis for seeking support, visitation, or custody.

Does a presumed parent have to be part of the case?

Yes. A presumed parent must be joined as a party in all actions under chapter 209C. The exception is where that person’s non-parentage has already been adjudicated in a prior proceeding between them and the person who gave birth. Where a joined party cannot be reached by mail requiring a receipt, notice may be given by publication once in each of three successive weeks.

Can a minor sign a voluntary acknowledgment of parentage?

Yes. The statute provides that either signatory may be a minor, whether that is the person who gave birth or the alleged genetic parent, presumed parent or intended parent.

Is an acknowledgment signed in another state valid in Massachusetts?

Yes, provided it was taken in accordance with the laws of the state or country where it was executed.

Does a support obligation stop while an acknowledgment is being challenged?

No. Responsibilities arising from an acknowledgment are not suspended during the pendency of a challenge unless the court orders otherwise for good cause shown. If circumstances have changed, that is a separate question addressed through modification.

This page is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it or contacting our firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Parentage outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case.

Last reviewed: October 2026