Domestic Violence and Child Support

Getting away from a violent partner is hard.  Worrying about whether and how there will be enough money to care for your children can make this decision even harder.   You may need "child support," as soon as possible. 

The articles in this section explain how you can get child support for your children while you are trying to keep yourself and your children safe.

"Child support" is money paid by one parent to the other to provide for the children's needs when the parents do not live together.  There are ways to get "child support" while you are staying in a shelter, in transitional housing, or have a restraining order.  Massachusetts law requires that children be supported as much as possible from the resources of their parents.

"Domestic violence" refers to many kinds of abuse committed by a member of a family, a household, or an intimate partner against another member of the family, household, or against the intimate partner. "Domestic Violence" also refers to many forms of abuse committed by one person against another in certain dating relationships or engagements.

You can seek a court order to protect you if your abuser        

• harms you physically,        
• tries to harm you physically,       
• makes you afraid that serious physical harm is going to happen to you, or       
• threatens, pressures or forces you to have sex.

This court order is to protect you from further harm. It is called an "abuse prevention order," a "restraining order," or a "209A."

 "Domestic violence" is sometimes called "battering," and it also refers to abusive patterns of power and control in family, household, and intimate partner relationships.

Know Your Rights: Domestic Violence, published by the American Bar Association, says that "Domestic violence is a pattern of many behaviors directed at achieving and maintaining power and control over an intimate partner, such as physical violence, emotional abuse, isolation of the victim, economic abuse, intimidation, and coercion and threats."