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.

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 depends 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 Section 24D disposition is the Massachusetts first-offense OUI framework that combines probation, an alcohol education or treatment program, and a shorter license suspension. Section 24D is itself the probationary or sentencing disposition. It may take the form of a continuance without a finding after an admission to sufficient facts, or it may be the…

Not every Massachusetts OUI case begins with an arrest. When a driver is identified after a collision, interviewed at a hospital, or found beside a parked vehicle and sent home, the charge often arrives days later as a citation in the mail. That difference changes the first stage of the case entirely. A driver charged…

Massachusetts law often permits a person to seal a dismissal, nolle prosequi, or completed continuance without a finding. The correct procedure depends on the exact disposition. Some non-conviction records must be sealed without a discretionary hearing. Other dismissals require a petition to the court. An older record may qualify for administrative sealing through the Commissioner…

The Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court issued a steady run of criminal decisions in July 2026. Defense counsel will rely on several of them in motions to suppress, evidentiary objections, and abuse prevention hearings in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court. This survey is the first in a monthly series covering…

In a Massachusetts prosecution that begins with a motor vehicle stop, the motion to suppress is often the filing that decides the case. Firearms, drug, and operating under the influence charges typically rest on what the police saw and seized in the minutes after the blue lights came on, and each item of evidence depends…