Mass. Gen. Laws » Part II Title III Chapter 208
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 208, § 20 (2026)

Continuance of action; temporary separation

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 20. The court may, without entering a judgment of divorce, order the action continued upon the docket from time to time, and during such continuance may make orders relative to a temporary separation of the parties, the separate maintenance of either spouse and the custody and support of minor children. Such orders may be changed or annulled as the court may determine, and shall, while they are in force, supersede any order of the probate court under section thirty-two of chapter two hundred and nine and may suspend the right of said court to act under said section. When the court makes an order for maintenance of a spouse or support of a minor child, and such spouse or child is not a member of a private group health insurance plan, the court shall include in such order a provision relating to health insurance, which provision shall be in accordance with section thirty-four.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1926–1980 · leading case: Silvia v. Silvia, 400 N.E.2d 1330 (Mass. App. Ct. 1980).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Silvia v. Silvia, 400 N.E.2d 1330 (Mass. App. Ct. 1980). “G. L. c. 208, § 20, as last amended by St.”
Malcolm v. Malcolm, 153 N.E. 461 (Mass. 1926). “In the absence of any finding on the evidence it cannot be inferred from the order for continuance of the libel, as the libellee contends, that the judge denied the libel and continued the case under G. L. c. 208, § 20. The findings in DeFerrari v.”
Harrington v. Harrington, 254 Mass. 506 (Mass. 1926). “G. L. c. 208, § 20. DeFerrari v. DeFerrari, 220 Mass.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.