By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Motorists receive criminal citations for negligent operation of a motor vehicle under M.G.L. c. 90, § 24(2)(a) either after being stopped by police or in the mail. Many people treat the citation like a traffic ticket. It is anything but.…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A shoplifting citation from a Massachusetts retailer arrives in the mail with a civil demand letter attached. The civil demand is for $200 or so. The criminal case, the notice to appear for a clerk-magistrate hearing, is the part that…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Unlicensed operation under M.G.L. c. 90, § 10 is one of the most frequently charged motor vehicle crimes among students arriving in Boston and Cambridge, professionals relocating from other states, and skilled workers who have not yet converted a foreign…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joseph Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A fake ID citation in Boston or Cambridge initiates a clerk-magistrate hearing that most students treat as a formality and almost none understand is potentially a felony proceeding. The charge under M.G.L. c. 90, § 24B, misuse of a Registry…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A Massachusetts probation violation notice arrives by mail, by phone call from your probation officer, or at the moment of a new arrest. Whatever form it takes, a probation surrender triggers a separate legal proceeding that runs independently of any…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense One of the most common questions asked after a Massachusetts traffic stop that led to a drug charge or firearms charge is: did the police have the right to search my car? The answer is fact-specific, but the legal framework…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A dangerousness hearing under M.G.L. c. 276, § 58A is one of the most consequential proceedings in Massachusetts criminal law. It is the proceeding at which a judge can order a defendant held in custody without bail for up to…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Most Massachusetts drug cases do not end with a guilty verdict at trial. They end earlier, at a clerk-magistrate hearing, at a suppression hearing, or through a pre-trial disposition that avoids a conviction. The most important question in every drug…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense One of the most common causes of unlicensed operation charges in the Massachusetts District Courts is not deliberate disregard of the law. It is a genuine misunderstanding of how quickly a new resident, student, or professional must obtain a Massachusetts…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Two separate Massachusetts legal proceedings use the word “harassment” to describe conduct they address: the 258E civil harassment prevention order under M.G.L. c. 258E and the criminal harassment charge under M.G.L. c. 265, § 43A. They share a statutory framework,…
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