Articles Posted in Clerk-Magistrate Hearings

Massachusetts shoplifting and larceny cases often begin with a private clerk-magistrate hearing before any criminal complaint or arraignment. The immediate question is whether the clerk-magistrate will issue a complaint and start a public criminal case. If the application is denied, no complaint issues, no arraignment occurs, and that application creates no Criminal Offender Record Information…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 A Massachusetts show cause notice means that someone has applied for a criminal complaint and the court has scheduled a clerk-magistrate hearing. The notice is not an arrest warrant, a conviction, or a criminal complaint. The notice gives the recipient…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 A Massachusetts fake ID case in Boston or Cambridge often begins at a clerk-magistrate hearing, before a criminal complaint or arraignment. The hearing is presumptively private. The hearing does not itself create a public criminal case or a Criminal Offender…