Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Massachusetts makes willful non-support of an indigent parent a crime, punishable by a fine or up to a year in jail, with two built-in defenses: a parent who did not support the child during minority, and a child who already made a fair contribution alongside siblings.
What Massachusetts actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 273, Sec. 20 | “Any person, over eighteen, who, being possessed of sufficient means, unreasonably neglects or refuses to provide for the support and maintenance of his parent… when such parent through misfortune and without fault of his own is destitute of means of sustenance and unable by reason of old age, infirmity or illness to support and maintain himself, shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.” |
| Criminal, penalty as stated above | The section sits in the chapter on desertion, non-support and illegitimacy, criminal in character; the section’s own text does not separately name the prosecuting office. |
| Two built-in defenses | “No such neglect or refusal shall be deemed unreasonable as to a child who shall not during his minority have been reasonably supported by such parent, if such parent was charged with the duty so to do, nor as to a child who, being one of two or more children, has made proper and reasonable contribution toward the support of such parent.” |
| Cap or time limit | The fine itself is capped at two hundred dollars; no support-amount cap or filing deadline appears in the section’s text. |
| Case law | No reported Massachusetts decision applying Sec. 20 to an adult child’s duty toward a parent was found; a case initially identified as on point, Commonwealth v. A Juvenile, 387 Mass. 678 (1982), turned out on review to interpret a different section entirely (nonsupport of an illegitimate child). |
How it works in practice
- Liability requires the child to be possessed of sufficient means and the parent to be destitute through misfortune and without fault of his own, both elements a prosecutor would have to show.
- A parent who did not reasonably support the child during that child’s own minority cannot later invoke this statute against that child, the statute’s own defense.
- Among multiple siblings, a child who already made a proper and reasonable contribution toward the parent’s support has a complete defense against the others’ share too.
What a filial responsibility statute is, why most of them sit unused, and which state is the one with documented recent enforcement is explained on the filial responsibility laws by state page. How this fits alongside the other two mechanisms that can turn a parent’s medical debt into a living person’s debt is explained on who actually owes medical bills after a death, and what a nursing home may and may not ask a family member to sign at admission is on the admission agreement traps page. This page is the record for Massachusetts.
What this page does not settle
- Whether this statute has ever actually been enforced against an adult child for a parent’s care costs specifically, as opposed to existing on the books, could not be confirmed; no case law was found either way, and that absence is reported rather than read as proof the law is unused.
- This page reads the state’s own current code. A state can amend or repeal this section without the page around it changing, and a detail specific to your situation, such as a pending Medicaid application or a prior period of estrangement, can change which part of the statute applies.
- A statute existing is not the same question as whether it has ever been used. Enforcement history, where it exists at all, is noted on this page; where none was found, that is stated plainly rather than left blank.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on September 4, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and the statute’s own defenses and procedural requirements matter as much as its liability language.
Whether this statute actually reaches a given family’s situation is decided by a court on the specific facts, not by this page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should sign anything or send money on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The sources above were retrieved and read against the state text on September 4, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.