2021 Massachusetts General Laws
Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations
Title III - Domestic Relations
Chapter 209c - Children Born Out of Wedlock
Section 13 - Inspection of Documents; Copies; Segregation of Records
Section 13. In an action to establish paternity or in which paternity of a child is an issue, all complaints, pleadings, papers, documents or reports filed in connection therewith, docket entries in the permanent docket and record books shall be segregated and unavailable for inspection only if the judge of the court where such records are kept, for good cause shown, so orders or the person alleged to be the father is adjudicated not to be the father of the child; provided, however, that the child, the child's mother, the person adjudicated to be the father and the department of transitional assistance, the department of children and families, the division of medical assistance or any other public assistance program and the IV–D agency as set forth in chapter 119A, when the child who is or was the subject of the complaint is a recipient of public assistance or the attorney for any of them, and the department of children and families, when the child who is or was the subject of the complaint is within the care and protection of the department of children and families, is the subject of a petition for such care or protection pursuant to chapter 119 or is the subject of a petition to dispense with consent for adoption pursuant to subsection (b) of section 3 of chapter 210, shall have access to and the right to obtain copies of the papers, docket books and judgments in actions pursuant to this chapter. For good cause shown, which may be made ex parte or upon credible evidence, parties may file a complaint without the address, and the court shall impound a party's address by excluding it from the complaint and from all other court documents and testimony, and shall ensure that the address is kept confidential from each other party except the IV–D agency as set forth in chapter 119A.
