LaRochelle prevails at Supreme Judicial Court in
family law case with significant constitutional implications
Dennis LaRochelle argued a case with potential national implications before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) on December 7, 2022. A practitioner of family law in Massachusetts for over twenty years, Dennis represented a legal father who volunteered to raise the child as his own knowing that he was not the child’s biological father. The case arose when a man claiming to be the child’s biological father asked the Probate Court to determine him to be the child’s legal father. Following a two-day hearing in 2020, the Probate Court judge determined that the alleged biological father could not proceed with his claim because several years had passed since the child’s birth and the alleged biological father could not establish that he had developed a substantial relationship with the child. The Probate Court judge held that it would be more harmful to the child than beneficial to allow the claim to proceed.
The alleged biological father appealed and the SJC took up the appeal directly because of the importance of the issues presented. Dennis argued that the rights of the child, now nine years old and having known only one man to be her “father” since age two, were more important than the rights of the alleged biological father who waited years to come forward with his claim. The alleged biological father argued, among other things, that he had a right protected by the United States Constitution to be adjudicated the father of a child whom he claimed he could prove was his biologically. The SJC issued its decision on July 19th 2023, affirming the Probate Court’s decision in a unanimous opinion.
We understand that every matter we handle for our individual clients is important to them and their families. The decision in this case will have a wider effect and is being watched by many, not just throughout the Commonwealth but across the nation.
Watch the oral argument by clicking on this link.