The Senate on Thursday initially approved legislation aimed at simplifying child custody laws to provide a “simpler and streamlined process” for interstate custody disputes. But concerns about the process thwarted the leadership's plans before the bill could be passed in the upper house.
Massachusetts would be the last in the country to adopt the standard framework known as the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act if the bill introduced by the Senate on Thursday becomes law. The uniform framework dates to 1997 and has been adopted by all 49 other states, according to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) said current child custody laws in Massachusetts are outdated.
“As a result, Massachusetts residents may face complications in custody cases involving multiple states, including jurisdictional disputes and delays in enforcement,” he said. “This bill establishes clear rules to determine which state has jurisdiction over custody matters, with the child’s home state taking precedence, and ensures that courts in Massachusetts can cooperate effectively with courts in other states.”
The bill also addresses virtual participation in custody proceedings and notice requirements for proceedings taking place simultaneously in more than one state.
Senate President Karen Spilka's office said: “Once the Massachusetts courts have exercised custody jurisdiction, our courts will retain future jurisdiction to prevent possible changes to the judgment or order as long as a parent or child remains in the state , that shopping and dueling lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions.
The Senate unanimously passed a similar bill in 2016. In 2018, the branch passed it in July before the House referred it to its Ways and Means Committee seven days before the end of formal sessions for the term.
It was sponsored this term by Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem, although the measure did not attract co-sponsors or companion legislation from the House, unlike in 2018, when former Rep. James Cantwell sponsored a companion bill across the floor had submitted.
The 31-page text was redrafted and published Thursday by the Senate Ways and Means Committee (as S 2961). In election years, after lawmakers reach the end of formal sessions on July 31, the flow of broadly significant bills typically dwindles to a trickle, but bills with broad support can still advance.
Branch leadership planned to pass the bill Thursday, but some senators were upset that the bill took effect so quickly.
In their remarks, Sen. John Keenan of Quincy and Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester spoke generally in favor of the bill and said it was important to act on it, but cast shade on the growing habit of introducing more substantial proposals at informal fall meetings.
“This morning around 9:33 a.m. we received notice that the Ways and Means Committee would be voting, and then at 10:30 a.m. the vote closed and here we are, about an hour later, with the bill in front of us “,” Keenan said at 11:30 a.m
None of the few senators present introduced the bill or made any other formal request, but they made their feelings known. Keenan said he hoped it would only be “delayed for a short period of time.” Tarr then expressed a desire to move the bill forward Thursday but stop at third reading, a form of initial approval that leaves it in the Senate for further consideration.
“Members – I think we may have someone who wants to move an amendment to this – and it is very difficult for members in an informal meeting with an hour's notice to read a bill and decide whether they want to do that or not.” “Change it,” Keenan said. “And I commend the gentleman from Millbury for doing that.”
Moore, of Millbury, filed another amendment Thursday, which he quietly withdrew before the vote. It was an attempt to advance his own custody measure, which has been stuck in the Ways and Means Committee since the summer.
Moore's proposal (S 118), filed in early 2023 and sent to Ways and Means in July, would create a so-called Harmony Commission aimed at preventing future tragedies such as the death of Harmony Montgomery, whose father had custody of received the five-year-old son. old and was later convicted of her murder.
Five years after the girl's death, a search for her remains was still underway in Chelsea this week, WCVB-TV reported.
The proposed panel would “investigate how a child's rights, welfare and welfare are currently managed in care and protection cases, and request waiver in consent cases and make recommendations on how children can be better protected and cared for in such cases.”
Moore asked the floor to be notified as soon as the bill goes to committee for third reading. Spilka's office told the News Service after the adjournment that it planned to take up the matter at the next meeting on Monday.
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