My ex boyfriend is taking me to court for custody of our almost 2 year old daughter. He is the one that filed the complaint for custody. He currently has custody under a temporary order and he is going for permanent custody.
I have retained an attorney, but I was wondering what the laws in Massachusetts are regarding reimbursement of legal fees. Can I request that he reimburse me since he is the one that filed the complaint for custody? He is the one taking me to court. (Posted Anonymously in the Discussion Forums).
 
The fact that your ex-boyfriend filed the complaint for custody against you does not automatically mean that he will be required to reimburse you for your legal fees. Typically in these types of cases each party will be responsible for his or her own legal fees. Although Massachusetts Probate Court have authority to award legal fees to one side or the other (i.e., require one side to pay the other sides attorneys fees), in practice it doesn't happen very often. An example of when you might see an award of attorney's fees is when the probate court feels that one side is unnecessarily prolonging litigation and wasting everyone's time. In such a situation the Probate Court may require that party to pay some or all of the other side's attorney's fees. These situations are unusual - you should probably plan on paying all of your own attorney's fees.  Posted by Attorney 'AMS.'