This interview helps you fill out up to 8 forms you need to ask the court for a 209A restraining order. A 209A order is a court order that can protect you from someone who has abused you. The order can make the abuser stay away from you, your home, and your children. The order can also make the abuser pay you money. This interview is free to file and takes most people about 1 and 1/2 hours to complete.
If the plaintiff already has a domestic violence abuse prevention (restraining order), this interview can help ask the court to change or end it.
The change can be to add or remove restrictions. For example: you can use this interview to ask the judge to add protection for your pets if you did not include this in your original petition.
After you file the motion this interview makes, the court will schedule a hearing. It may take 1-2 weeks for the hearing where you can explain why you need the order changed or ended to the judge.
You can use this interview to make an Affidavit Disclosing Care or Custody Proceedings to tell the judge about:
The form that this interview makes may already be included in other interviews on this site.
If you need more time to file your brief in the Appeals Court, you can use this interview to ask for an enlargement of time.
This interview will help you tell the court:
A copy of the motion must be served on all other parties to the appeal.
If a judge has given your landlord the right to evict you, you can use this interview to appeal or ask for a stay (temporary delay) in your eviction.
It will help you make a motion for the appeals court and a notice of appeal that will be filed with the trial court. It can also make a request for a fee waiver (affidavit of indigency).
The motion is filed with the Appeals Court and can be efiled.
Use this interview if you would like to file a motion with the Appeals Court not listed elsewhere on this page. For example:
If you are filing a civil action in the Superior Court, you must complete a Civil Action Cover Sheet. This form is required for all civil actions filed in the Superior Court.
The form asks for basic information about the parties and the kind of case.
An interview to help parents when DOR/CSE is collecting past due child support
If you are filing an appeal in the Massachusetts Appeals Court, you can use this interview to make a Civil Docketing Statement. This form is required for all appeals.
The Civil Docketing Statement is a form that provides the court with information about your case. The form asks for information about the parties involved, the nature of the case, and the relief you are seeking. The form also asks for information about the attorneys involved in the case.
If you need a decision from the judge in an existing case in the Probate and Family court, you can use this interview to make a motion to the judge.
A motion is a request for the judge to make a decision about something important in your case. This interview can help you make a motion about anything in the case. For example, to ask for more time to respond to a court paper, or to dismiss the case, or to ask for a temporary order.
If you are a tenant who has a deadline to move, because of the court or your housing authority, you can use this form to keep track of the apartments you contact, visit, or apply to rent. This form can help you show the court or housing authority that you are actively looking for housing.
For example, you may want to use this if:
You can come back to this interview more than once to build a record of all of the places you visit and apply to.
This interview will help you ask the court for emergency help to stop your landlord from:
You may also use this interview to ask the court to order your landlord to make repairs to your home or to pay you money.
If your situation is more complex, you may want to use GetUpToCode instead. GetUpToCode can help you with more options to find and report housing problems, including the problems listed above.
If your first language is not English, you can use this interview to tell the court that you need an interpreter. The court will provide an interpreter for free during your court hearings.
If you are an attorney who is providing limited representation in a case, you can use this intervew to notify the court and other parties. This document must be filed to appear in the case without committing to representing the client in full.
Limited appearance can mean many things, including:
This interview will allow you to send it to another person, such as your client, to get their signature remotely.
This interview helps you fill out a form (TC0020) to ask the court for permission to get married without waiting the usual 3 days.
Both you and your partner need to sign this form at the same time.
If you are the parent or guardian of a minor (someone younger than 18), you can use this form to legally change the minor's legal name.
You need to tell the judge why you need the name change. But "it is the name that I use" is a good reason.
This interview makes the "Petition for Change of Name of a Minor" form to file with the court. You must also separately make:
If you are over 18 and live in Massachusetts, you can use this form to change your name on official documents.
The court will ask for the reason for your name change, but "it is the name that I use" is enough reason.
If your name change is part of affirming your expressed gender identity, you can file a separate request to change your gender markers on official documents. This interview does not help you make the request to change your gender markers.
After you finish the interview you need to sign the petition in front of a notary and file it with the court.
If you would like a single justice of the Appeals Court to overrule a decision made by the trial court judge that is not yet a final judgment of the court, use this form.
You can use this form to ask the Appeals Court to review the decision for mistakes in the law or abuse of discretion. You must provide a legal reason that the judge's decision was wrong.
You can only seek review of an order of the trial court within 30 days of the trial court judge's decision.
This form will help you draft a demand letter to send to your landlord if they have not returned your security deposit within 30 days after your lease ended. If your landlord does not return your deposit, you may get up to 3 times your deposit back from your landlord as a penalty.
This interview produces a letter for the Social Security Administration that explains any changes that might affect your benefits.
If you were paid too much money by the Social Security Administration and are required to pay it back, you can use this form to request a change in the repayment amount or a waiver of part of the overpayment.
If you are a tenant who missed an eviction hearing and the court entered a default judgment against you, you can use this form to ask the court to remove the default judgment and give you a new hearing.
This form is for tenants who have a good reason for missing the hearing and a defense for why they should not be evicted.
If it is not safe for you to be in your home with your spouse or co-parent, this interview helps you ask the court to order the other side in your family law case to:
An interview to write validation or do not call letters on behalf of your clients that come from you.
If you are getting evicted in Massachusetts, you can use MADE to defend against your eviction case (also called summary process). It will help you make an Answer and Discovery form and other forms you may need to file in court. MADE will also help you gather information to help you defend your case.
There are also special defenses in MADE for homeowners after a foreclosure.
Most tenants who use MADE will get an extension of 2 weeks in their court hearing date in order to allow them to get more information to defend their case.
An interview to tell you whether a debt collector can force you to pay after suing you.
An interview to get information from debt collectors or stop them contacting you.