reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 210 § 3b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 3b - Registration of Interest for Pre-Adoptive or Adoptive Placement; Criminal Record Review

Section 3B. When deciding whether to approve or reject a registration of interest for pre-adoptive or adoptive placement, the department shall conduct a review of any misdemeanor offense discovered through a criminal offender record information search conducted pursuant to section 172B of chapter 6 in order to assist the department in accurately evaluating whether the mere existence of the offense has a substantial effect on the applicant's current or future ability to assume and carry out the responsibilities of an adoptive or pre-adoptive parent in such a manner that the rights of the child to sound health and normal physical, mental, spiritual and moral development are insured. The review shall include, but need not be limited to, a review of the following: the time that has elapsed between the date of the offense and the filing of the registration of interest, the seriousness and specific circumstances of the offense, the number and nature of other offenses, the age of the offender at the time of the offense, the findings and recommendations of the family resource worker assigned by the department to discuss the facts surrounding the misdemeanor with the applicant, the recommendations given to the family resource worker by personal or employment references chosen by the applicant or received otherwise, the current and future needs of the child to be placed or adopted and the probable effect that the misdemeanor would have on the applicant's ability to fulfill those needs, any reports or recommendations received by the department from the applicant's parole or probation officer should one have been assigned, a copy of the police report pertaining to the offense in question if obtainable within a reasonable period of time or discussions with a police officer familiar with the facts surrounding the offense and, unless inappropriate, discussions with the child to be placed regarding his current and past relationship with the applicant. Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the discretion of the department to approve or reject the registration of interest for adoptive or pre-adoptive placement.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 4 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 4 - Notice

Section 4. If the written consent required by section two is not submitted to the court with the petition, the court shall, except where the court under section three has determined that such consent and notice is not required, order notice by personal service upon the parties of an order of notice, in such form as shall be prescribed under section thirty of chapter two hundred and fifteen, or, if the parties are not found within this commonwealth, by publication of said order of notice once in each of three successive weeks in such newspaper as the court orders, the last publication to be seven days at least before the time appointed for the hearing, and the court may require additional notice and consent. But if such child is of unknown parentage and is a foundling, publication as herein set forth shall not be required; but notice of the petition shall be given to the department of children and families.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 5 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 5 - Failure to Object After Notice; Proceedings

Section 5. If, after such notice, a person whose consent is required does not appear and object to the adoption, the court may act upon the petition without his consent, subject to his right of appeal, or it may appoint a guardian ad litem with power to give or withhold consent.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 5b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 5b - Adoptive Custody; Factors Considered; Request for Religious Designation

Section 5B. In making orders for adoption, the judge shall consider the need of the child for loving and responsible parental care and all factors relevant to the physical, mental and moral health of the child.  If, at the time of surrender of the child for adoptive custody, the parent or parents of said child requested a religious designation for the child, the court may grant a petition for adoption of the child only to a person or persons of the religious designation so requested, unless a placement for adoptive custody based on such request would not have been in the best interests of the child. If a request for religious designation is not given effect, such reasons in support of such determination shall be made a part of the records of the proceedings.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 5c (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 5c - Inspection of Pleadings, Reports, etc.; Docket Book

Section 5C. All petitions for adoption, all reports submitted thereunder and all pleadings, papers or documents filed in connection therewith, docket entries in the permanent docket and record books shall not be available for inspection, unless a judge of probate of the county where such records are kept, for good cause shown, shall otherwise order. Such petitions, reports, pleadings, papers, documents and permanent docket and record books shall be segregated. A separate permanent docket book shall be provided for all such entries. This section shall apply to the index of the court of all such entries, a separate index of which shall be provided.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 5e (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 5e - Department of Children and Families Adoption Report

Section 5E. The department of children and families shall submit a report detailing the number and nature, as defined jointly by department and the University of Massachusetts center for adoption research and policy in Worcester, of adoptions processed by the department during each calendar quarter to be filed with said center on the first day of each calendar quarter.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 6a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 6a - Certificates of Adoption

Section 6A. The court shall forthwith, following the making of a decree of adoption, issue to the petitioner, or petitioners, a certificate of adoption setting forth all the facts relating to the adopting parent, or parents, as appearing in the statement required to be filed by section six, the name of, and all other facts relating to, the person adopted, as appearing in any copy of birth record or decree of adoption filed as required by said section, the name of the court making such decree and the date thereof, and, if such decree authorizes a change in the name of the person adopted, his name as so changed; provided, that if such person has been born out of wedlock, the name, or names, of, and all other facts relating to, his natural parent, or parents, shall be omitted from such certificate.  Certificates under this section shall be made on forms furnished by the commissioner of public health, and shall provide for the indicating thereon by the adopting parent, or parents, as to whether or not a correction of the record of the birth of the person adopted is desired; and, in case such desire is so indicated, the court shall forthwith send a certified copy of such certificate to the clerk of the city or town where such person was born.  If either of the parents who have adopted a child so request, the register of probate shall issue a special certificate of adoption upon which the original or prior name of the child and the names of its natural parents shall not appear.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 6b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 6b - Adoption Nunc Pro Tunc

Section 6B. In the event that either of the petitioning adopting parents to a petition for adoption, which has been filed with the probate court, should die prior to the entry of a decree of adoption, the probate court may enter a decree within three months following the date of death nunc pro tunc to the date of the filing of the adoption petition. Said decree shall have all of the effect of a decree of adoption as to both petitioners and the person adopted as provided for in section seven.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 6d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 6d - Enforcement of Agreement

Section 6D. A party to a court-approved agreement for post-adoption contact or communication may seek to enforce the agreement by commencing a civil action for specific performance. A court order for specific performance of the terms of a post-adoption contact agreement shall be the sole remedy for breach of an agreement.  In such proceedings, parties shall not be entitled to the appointment of counsel; provided, however, that the court may appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the child.  In an enforcement proceeding, the court may modify the terms of the agreement if the court finds that there has been a material and substantial change in circumstances and the modification is necessary in the best interests of the child. A court-imposed modification of a previously approved agreement may limit, restrict, condition or decrease contact between the birth parents and the child but in no event shall a court-imposed modification serve to expand, enlarge or increase the amount of contact between the birth parents and the child or place new obligations on adoptive parents.  If the court finds that an action brought under this section was wholly insubstantial, frivolous and not advanced in good faith in accordance with the provisions of section 6F of chapter 231, the court may award attorney's fees to all prevailing parties.  Nothing in the agreement shall preclude a party seeking to enforce an agreement for post-adoption contact or communication from utilizing child welfare mediation or permanency mediation before, or in addition to, the commencement of a civil action for specific enforcement. All proceedings conducted under this section shall be closed to the public and confidential and papers shall be segregated in accordance with section 5D.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 6e (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 6e - Decisions of Adoptive Parent on Behalf of Child

Section 6E. Nothing contained in sections 6C and 6D shall be construed to abrogate the right of an adoptive parent to make decisions on behalf of his child.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 9 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 9 - Succession to Property; Right of Child Adopted in Foreign State

Section 9. A person adopted in another state or country, in accordance with the laws thereof, shall upon proof of such fact be entitled in this commonwealth to the same rights of succession to property by grant, trust settlement, entail, devise, bequest, or by intestacy as he would have had if he had been adopted in the commonwealth.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 10 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 10 - Second Adoption; Effect

Section 10. If the child has been previously adopted, all the legal consequences of the former decree shall, upon a subsequent adoption, determine, except so far as any interest in property may have vested in the adopted child, and a decree to that effect shall be entered on the records of the court.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 11 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 11 - Appeals

Section 11. The supreme judicial court may allow a parent, who, upon a petition for adoption, had no notice of the proceedings before the decree and had neither waived notice in accordance with section two nor been the subject of a decree dispensing with need for notice in accordance with section three, to appeal therefrom within one hundred and twenty days after actual notice thereof.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 11a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 11a - Adoption Services Offered by Certain Persons or Agencies; Penalty

Section 11A. Any person or entity other than a duly authorized agent or employee of the department of children and families or a child care or placement agency licensed under the provisions of chapter 15D, who causes to be published in the commonwealth an advertisement or notice of children offered or wanted for adoption, or in any way offers to place, locate or dispose of children offered or wanted for adoption, or who holds himself out in any way as being able to place, locate or dispose of children for adoption shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars. Any such person who shall accept payment in the form of money or other consideration in return for placing a child for adoption shall be punished by a fine of not less than five thousand and not more than thirty thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in jail or house of correction for not more than two and one-half years or in the state prison for not more than five years, or both.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 12 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 12 - Petitions for Change of Name

Section 12. A petition for the change of name of a person may be heard by the probate court in the county where the petitioner resides. The change of name of a person shall be granted unless such change is inconsistent with public interests.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 13 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 13 - Notice and Certificate; Decree; Entry; Conditions Precedent

Section 13. The court shall, before decreeing a change of name, request a report from the commissioner of probation on the person filing the petition and, except for good cause shown, require public notice of the petition to be given and any person may be heard thereon, and, upon entry of a decree, the name as established thereby shall be the legal name of the petitioner, and the register may issue a certificate, under the seal of the court, of the name as so established.  No decree shall be entered, however, until there has been filed in the court a copy of the birth record of the person whose name is sought to be changed and, in case such person's name has previously been changed by decree of court or at marriage pursuant to section one D of chapter forty-six, either a copy of the record of his birth amended to conform to the previous decree changing his name, a copy of such decree, or a copy of the record of marriage; provided, that the filing of any such copy may be dispensed with if the judge is satisfied that it cannot be obtained.
MA Gen L ch 210 § 14 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part II - Real and Personal Property and Domestic Relations|Title III - Domestic Relations|Chapter 210 - Adoption of Children and Change of Names|Section 14 - Annual Return of Changes of Name

Section 14. Each register of probate shall annually, in December, make a return to the commissioner of public health and the commissioner of probation of all changes of name made in his court.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 1 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 1 - Number of Justices

Section 1. The supreme judicial court shall consist of one chief justice and six associate justices.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 2 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 2 - Quorum

Section 2. The full court shall be the supreme judicial court in banc, and four justices shall constitute a quorum to decide all matters required to be heard by it.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 2a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 2a - Statement of Expenses and Costs

Section 2A. The chief justice of the supreme judicial court in consultation with the chief justice of the trial court and the court administrator shall periodically prepare a statement of all expenses and costs, including salaries, for the supreme judicial court. Said chief justice shall periodically prepare and submit to the budget director the statement required by section three of chapter twenty-nine which shall show, in detail, an estimate for the ordinary maintenance of the entire judicial system of the commonwealth, and the revenue therefrom, as provided in clause (5) of the first paragraph of said section three. Said statement shall include judicial salaries and the salaries of all officers and employees within the judicial branch of government of the commonwealth and shall include estimates of all sums which the commonwealth is obligated to pay under the provisions of chapter twenty-nine A.  Said chief justice may use the estimates prepared by the chief justice of the appeals court and the chief justice of the trial court and the court administrator for the purposes of this section, attaching whatever recommendations he may desire or deem necessary.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 3 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 3 - Superintendence of Inferior Courts; Power to Issue Writs and Process

Section 3. The supreme judicial court shall have general superintendence of all courts of inferior jurisdiction to correct and prevent errors and abuses therein if no other remedy is expressly provided; and it may issue all writs and processes to such courts and to corporations and individuals which may be necessary to the furtherance of justice and to the regular execution of the laws.  In addition to the foregoing, the justices of the supreme judicial court shall also have general superintendence of the administration of all courts of inferior jurisdiction, including, without limitation, the prompt hearing and disposition of matters pending therein, and the functions set forth in section 3C; and it may issue such writs, summonses and other processes and such orders, directions and rules as may be necessary or desirable for the furtherance of justice, the regular execution of the laws, the improvement of the administration of such courts, and the securing of their proper and efficient administration; provided, however, that general superintendence shall not include the authority to supersede any general or special law unless the supreme judicial court, acting under its original or appellate jurisdiction finds such law to be unconstitutional in any case or controversy. Nothing herein contained shall affect existing law governing the selection of officers of the courts, or limit the existing authority of the officers thereof to appoint administrative personnel.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 3a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 3a - Administrative Assistant

Section 3A. The justices of the supreme judicial court may appoint an administrative assistant who shall have such powers and perform such duties as the justices shall determine.  The salary of said administrative assistant shall be set by the justice of the supreme judicial court. Said administrative assistant shall serve at the pleasure of the justices and shall be provided with suitable quarters in the Suffolk county courthouse in the city of Boston.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 3b (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 3b - Conferences of Judges

Section 3B. The justices of the supreme judicial court may provide by rule or special order for the holding of conferences of the judges of the various courts and of invited members of the bar, for the consideration of matters relating to judicial business, the improvement of the judicial system and the administration of justice.
MA Gen L ch 211 § 4 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 211 - The Supreme Judicial Court|Section 4 - Removal of Officers

Section 4. A majority of the justices may, if in their judgment the public good so requires, remove from office a clerk of the courts or of their own court; and if sufficient cause is shown therefor and it appears that the public good so requires, may, upon a complaint, upon a summary hearing or otherwise, remove a clerk of the superior court in Suffolk county, or of a district court, a county commissioner, a county treasurer, sheriff, register of probate or district attorney, or the recorder of the land court.