Safety and emergency route
Start with safety before paperwork when danger, coercive control, stalking, sexual assault, child safety, or self-harm risk may be present.
Maine family court A-Z
Maine Family Court A-Z, in plain English.
A routing encyclopedia for families, helpers, officials, and readers who need to understand the next step without pretending this site is the court or a law office.
Every topic starts with safety, points back to official sources, and separates general public education from private legal advice.
Use rule: this page helps you orient yourself. Always verify forms, deadlines, filing requirements, and case-specific decisions with official sources, a clerk where appropriate, legal aid, a qualified advocate, or counsel.
Fast route
Pick the topic that matches the job.
When in doubt, start with safety and official doors, then use this page to understand the family-court vocabulary and workflow.
A-Z routing index
Plain-English family-court topics
Which family case is this?
Separate divorce, unmarried parental-rights cases, parentage, post-judgment changes, enforcement, protection matters, and child protection before choosing forms.
Parental rights and responsibilities
Use the official court page for current Maine guidance, then use JTforME pages only to organize plain-English next steps.
Court process from complaint to judgment
Track summons/service, response, mediation/case management, conferences, hearing dates, final judgment, and post-judgment follow-up.
Forms and filing
Use official Maine Judicial Branch forms. Do not rely on stale copies. Some items may require the clerk, court seal, or current court instructions.
Fee waiver / costs
Use the court fee-waiver route when filing cost blocks access. Bring income/expense information and verify current forms at the court source.
Service and notice
Track who must be served, how service happened, and proof of service. Do not guess; verify against the clerk or official instructions.
Mediation and conferences
Prepare child-centered issues, current orders, safety concerns, schedules, school/provider facts, and realistic proposals.
Guardian ad litem
Know what a GAL is, what they are appointed to do, who pays, what information they gather, and where the official roster/complaint information lives.
Protection from Abuse / Protection from Harassment
Use the safety route first, then official protection-order pages. Do not publish private allegations through this site.
Child support
Separate child support establishment/enforcement/review from custody or visitation enforcement. Maine Child Support does not handle all family-court issues.
Changing or enforcing an order
Use the official modification/enforcement page, gather changed-circumstance facts, and track what is order language versus personal disagreement.
After hearing
Write down what happened, exact next dates, deadlines, order language, who must do what, and what documents must be served or filed.
School and provider support
Do not make teachers, pediatricians, counselors, or childcare providers custody referees. Give them practical, child-centered updates.
DHHS / OCFS involvement
Keep child protection separate from private family-court disputes. Use official reporting and OCFS pages for child-safety and child-welfare processes.
Legal aid and qualified help
Use VLP, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, legal-aid clinics, and qualified counsel routes when information is not enough.
Child-first guardrails
Keep the process from becoming the harm.
Do not make children the messenger.
Use adult systems, written notes, provider-neutral updates, and official channels instead of putting the child in the middle.
Separate orders from arguments.
Track what the order actually says, what the next deadline is, and what proof shows compliance or noncompliance.
Escalate carefully.
Safety needs may require urgent help. Non-urgent disputes often need organization, documentation, legal advice, or a narrow court filing—not another public fight.