How to Find Free Civil Public Divorce Records in Massachusetts
Almost all court records in the state of Massachusetts are considered to be public information. The only exception is cases that involve individuals under the age of 18 or cases that have been sealed by the presiding judge. To locate divorce records, you will need to know which county the divorce took place, as well as the names of the parties involved.
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Instructions
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Determine the county that had jurisdiction over the divorce. The county that will have jurisdiction over the divorce is the county in which the filing party, or petitioner, resides. If you are unsure of the petitioner's county of residence, you can call the Probate and Family Court for any county and ask the representative to search for the case by name. If the clerk can not find the file, then the divorce was completed in a different county. A list of all Probate and Family courts has been provided in the Reference section of this article.
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Go to the Clerk of Courts of the county that the divorce was filed in.
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Go to the Probate and Family court division of the Clerk of Courts.
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Go to the records department and ask to view the case file for the divorce that you are searching for. You may be required to complete a file request form, depending on the individual policies of each county. Once the representative locates the files, they will allow you to view them in a secure room. If you would like to make copies, the clerk will make them for you for a per-page fee. As of June 2010, the rate was $1 per copy.
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References
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