Greater Boston Criminal Law Alerts

Learn when Massachusetts courts may admit Adjutant first-aggressor evidence, what notice Rule 14.3 requires, and how the prosecution may respond.

Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 is in force now and was never suspended by the referendum petition. The October 2026 compliance deadlines fall before the November 3 vote.

A Massachusetts harassment prevention order under chapter 258E can suspend a firearms license and require surrender of every firearm the defendant owns, with no family relationship and no criminal charge.

On August 7, 2026, the Appeals Court decided Commonwealth v. Figueroa, No. 25-P-1027 (Mass. App. Ct. Aug. 7, 2026), a case about the use of a defendant’s statements from a police interrogation conducted in a language other than English. The defendant, whose first language is Spanish, was questioned in Spanish, and the Commonwealth never produced…

On August 10, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Palmer, SJC-13873 (Mass. Aug. 10, 2026), a case that turns on two questions that decide most street-stop suppression motions: at what moment the police seize a person who runs from them, and whether the police had reasonable suspicion at that moment. The Court held…

The Massachusetts SJC rejected a fixed deadline for police to seek a search warrant after seizing a cell phone and upheld delays of 109 and 123 days under the specific facts of two cases.

A Massachusetts criminal sentence is not as final as it looks on the day it is imposed, and not as open to revision as clients hope. Three instruments govern what can change afterward: Mass. R. Crim. P. 29, which permits revision or revocation of a disposition within a sixty-day limit; Mass. R. Crim. P. 30(a),…

Most criminal cases in Massachusetts are resolved in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court, and most of them end at a disposition rather than a verdict. The hearing is often short, the session is busy, and choices with years of consequences are made in minutes. This guide is written for defense lawyers. It…

A practical guide to the records and timing a Massachusetts driver should review before requesting an RMV hardship-license hearing after an OUI.

G.L. c. 90, § 24D authorizes a probation, education, and treatment disposition for an eligible person charged with or convicted of a qualifying OUI. It may follow an admission to sufficient facts and a continuance without a finding, a guilty plea, or a conviction after a trial on the merits. The court disposition, program assignment,…