Articles Posted in Clerk-Magistrate Hearings

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Every week in Greater Boston, someone with no criminal record leaves a bar, a concert, a tailgate, or a party and ends up charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, or both. The police report describes chaos. The client remembers confusion.…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense You are not required to bring a lawyer to a Massachusetts clerk-magistrate hearing. There is no right to appointed counsel at this stage, because the hearing takes place before any complaint issues and formal criminal proceedings have not yet begun,…

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 commonly seeks a few hundred dollars. The criminal case, the notice to appear for a clerk-magistrate hearing, is the part…

By Attorney Joe 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…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A notice to appear for a clerk-magistrate hearing in Massachusetts arrives by mail. It is not an arrest. It is not a conviction. It is not yet a formal criminal charge. It is something more useful than any of those.…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A clerk-magistrate hearing is a unique opportunity in Massachusetts criminal procedure. A person can defeat a charge before it ever becomes public. Under M.G.L. c. 218, § 35A, a person accused of a misdemeanor who has not been arrested for…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense Most student fake ID cases in Boston do not begin with an arrest. They begin when a bouncer slides the card into a drawer and the student walks home annoyed about losing forty dollars. Weeks later a summons arrives at…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense A “Notice to Appear for Clerk-Magistrate’s Hearing” arrives in the mail without warning. There has been no arrest, no booking, and no public record, but the police are formally attempting to charge you with a crime. Understanding what this notice…