Safety or abuse comes before everything else.
Use the safety lane first when the need is immediate protection, a safer next step, or crisis support. Do not make someone read a policy page before they can find help.
Start here by situation
When the day is hard, the first next step should still be clear.
This page is a calmer front door for Maine readers who do not need the whole site all at once. Pick the job in front of you, open the right doorway, and keep the practical lane closer than the politics.
Families under pressure should not have to decode the entire platform before finding a starting point. This page pulls together the quickest situation routes, the simplest checklists, and the portable one-pagers that help people organize before the next call, filing, hearing, or crisis-support step.
Use this page fast Open the Family Hub Start-here guide PDF Packets and guides
Use this page fast
Match the first click to the pressure in front of you.
This is not legal advice, and it is not a replacement for urgent safety planning. It is a calmer routing page for the moment when people need the next doorway to be obvious.
A hearing, conference, or official call is coming up.
Use the practical hearing-week materials first, then the court-help lane and prep checklist so the next event is easier to explain and less chaotic to prepare for.
The papers are the problem before the case is.
Use the first-sort guide, then the plain-language terms and notes sheet. Families often need the system translated and the file simplified before anything else works.
Housing or child-support pressure is making everything else harder.
Use the family practical pack and the Family Hub lanes that treat housing, support, and court stress as connected, not as separate worlds.
Read order: If the pressure is immediate, practical help comes first. If the practical door is open and you need the bigger public record after that, use the dashboard, sources, and packets next.
By situation
Choose the nearest lane without reading the whole platform.
Custody, visitation, exchanges, or parenting-plan confusion
Use the Family Hub court lane when the question is what the process is, what the event is called, or what papers should be at the top of the folder.
Support review, adjustment, or administrative questions
Use the child-support lane when the issue is not the whole family case but a specific support order, review, or process step.
Need a clinic, legal-aid door, or lawyer referral
Use the legal-help lane when public information is not enough and you need an actual help doorway.
Rent, eviction, utilities, or staying housed
Use the housing lane when keeping the household steady is what makes every other family step possible.
GAL, magistrate, PFA, order, motion, docket, or service
Use the plain-English tools when the words themselves are blocking the next step.
Move from one family story to the statewide record
Use the flagship page, evidence center, and packets when the job is verification, public explanation, or institutional accountability.
Use by timeline
Pick the shortest useful order for today, this week, and the next official interaction.
Stabilize first
- If safety is the issue, use the safety lane first.
- Put the next notice, order, or deadline on top.
- Write the one question you most need answered today.
Reduce confusion
- Use the first-sort guide if the papers are everywhere.
- Use the call-notes sheet before you make a difficult call.
- Use the plain-English terms guide if the vocabulary is the block.
Gather only what matters
- Names and roles.
- Dates, notices, and orders.
- A short timeline and the deadline or event you are asking about.
Make the week simpler
- Use the hearing-week one-pager.
- Use the family-court prep checklist.
- Put the questions, papers, transport plan, and next date in one folder.
Paper sort
When the file is a mess, sort it into three piles and stop there.
Families often lose time because the file becomes one large stressed-out pile. The first useful move is not perfection. It is separating the papers into the few groups that actually help the next doorway.
1
Orders and notices
Put court notices, orders, parenting plans, support orders, and anything with a live deadline here first.
2
Support and stability records
Keep housing papers, utility notices, school records, child-care notes, and the documents that explain the pressure on the household here.
3
Your own notes and timeline
Keep the shortest factual timeline you can manage, plus call notes, missed exchanges, or a list of questions you still need answered.
Take something usable with you
Carry the short guides that reduce repeat confusion.
Start here by situation
A calm routing sheet for the first next step.
One page for the week of a hearing or official event
Keep the next court or clinic step simpler and easier to explain.
One page to write the names, dates, and questions that matter
Use this before calling a clerk, advocate, clinic, or referral line.
Three piles for the night when the papers are the problem
Use this to get out of the file-sprawl stage faster.
Keep the order clean: start-here sheet, then Family Hub, then packets or proof if you need the broader public record after the immediate practical door is open.
Keep moving through the platform
Read, verify, or act from here.
Use the Family Hub
If the immediate need is safety, court prep, housing help, child support, or plain-English translation, stay in the practical hub first.
Use packets and guides
If the next step is portability, the packet shelf now holds the short guides, practical packs, proof packets, and protected initiative materials.
Use the flagship proof layer
If the immediate practical question is under control and you need the broader public record, move to the dashboard, sources, and briefs next.