Brantley v. Hampden Division of the Probate & Family Court Department

For many years the judges of the Hampden Division of the Probate and Family Court Department (Hamp-den) have employed certain “protocols” or “procedures” (the terms are used by that court) in child-related litigation that are intended to assist them in making decisions concerning a child’s best interests, often in emergency circumstances. Pursuant to these protocols, judges, with the assistance of probation officers assigned to the court, orally obtain confidential information about litigants from the Department of Children and Families (department) that judges are permitted to consider as…