Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Mar 24, 2026

Domestic relations – Chapter 209A – Extension

Where a Probate & Family Court judge extended a G.L.c. 209A abuse prevention order, the extension of the 209A order for a duration of two years went beyond what was permitted by the statute, so a remand must be ordered.

Dec 27, 2025

Juvenile – Custody – Requisition

Where a Juvenile Court judge ordered that a child be returned to Indiana pursuant to a requisition issued by an Indiana court under the Interstate Compact on Juveniles (ICJ), that order should be reversed because custody proceedings commenced in Massachusetts before the Indiana court initiated the requisition proceedings, so the ICJ and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act precluded the Indiana [...]

Dec 22, 2025

Insurance – Pedestrian – PIP

Where a plaintiff submitted a personal injury protection (PIP) claim to obtain payment for medical services provided to treat a patient who had been injured in a fall while walking backward to get out of the way of an oncoming motor vehicle, the defendant auto insurer’s denial of coverage should be upheld because the commonwealth's no-fault automobile insurance law provides that a pedestrian mus[...]

Dec 2, 2025

Search and seizure – Multi-unit residential building

Where police officers, having learned during the execution of a search warrant for the defendant's first-floor apartment that he also rented the second-floor apartment in the same two-family home and that he was using the two apartments as a single dwelling, expanded their search to include the second-floor apartment without obtaining a new warrant, a judge’s decision to allow the defendant’s [...]

Aug 7, 2025

Real property – Eminent domain – Relocation expenses

Where (1) the Brockton Redevelopment Authority took 93 Centre Street by eminent domain and (2) a hearing officer of the bureau of relocation of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities determined that a commercial tenant was entitled to the full amount of its claim for moving expenses, that decision should be upheld based on substantial evidence that the tenant permissibly conducted[...]

Apr 21, 2025

Criminal – Right to remain silent – Waiver

Where a defendant was convicted of rape, the conviction should be affirmed despite the defendant’s argument that the police failed to honor his invocation of the right to remain silent, as he waived that argument by not raising it in his motion to suppress.

Apr 16, 2025

Former Massachusetts resident’s stock transaction ruled taxable

Capital gains that a former Massachusetts resident and his wife realized after he sold stock in the company he previously worked for were taxable as Massachusetts source income, the Appeals Court has determined.

Apr 8, 2025

Taxation – Income – Stock sale

Where the Appellate Tax Board concluded that the gain realized from the sale of stock was Massachusetts source income subject to tax, the board’s decision should be affirmed based on substantial evidence in support of the board’s determination that the gain was taxable as Massachusetts source income.

Mar 26, 2025

Criminal – Hearsay – Vial label

Where a defendant was convicted of possession of a class A substance (G.L.c. 94C, §34), the testimony of two witnesses that a vial found in the defendant’s possession bore a label imprinted with the words “morphine” and “four milligrams” was admissible and in any event cumulative of other evidence, so the conviction should be affirmed.