Greater Boston Criminal Law Alerts

How Hallinan affects past OUI dispositions, current prosecutions, and future retrials involving Alcotest 9510 results, with a Rule 30 review checklist.

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On June 2, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Grimaldi, SJC-13842, and answered a question that Massachusetts sobriety checkpoint cases have raised since troopers began wearing body cameras: can the Commonwealth use bodycam recordings of a driver’s field…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On July 9, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Watson, SJC-13850 (July 9, 2026), and held that G. L. c. 278A, the postconviction forensic and scientific analysis statute, permits digital forensic analysis of cell phones. The Commonwealth had…

Some of the hardest fought Massachusetts domestic violence cases I try are the ones where the accuser never takes the stand. The person who called 911 recants, refuses to appear, or has reconciled and wants the case gone. The Commonwealth does not always drop those cases. It tries to prove them through the recording and…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On April 15, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Arias, SJC-13816, and gave Massachusetts a rule it did not have before: when police stop a car for a traffic violation they observed earlier, the elapsed time between the…

Massachusetts has adopted regulations for social consumption of marijuana, but adoption of the regulations did not authorize an establishment to begin operating. As of August 16, 2026, the Cannabis Control Commission states that applications for Social Consumption Establishment licenses are not yet available. The Commission reported on June 23 that it was still developing application…

Be fair to the witness. Respect the jury. The two rules behind every Serpa Law Office cross-examination, from the rules of evidence to the last question that answers itself.

A Massachusetts OUI trial guide to field sobriety evidence, including police authority, NHTSA procedures, scoring, refusal evidence, video, and opinion limits.

A history of the 2002 OUI amendments, the District Court sentence, the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Cahill, and later changes to refusal law.

Since September 18, 2024, a Massachusetts judge can issue a 209A abuse prevention order based on coercive control. This post explains the statutory definition, the three elements, the Appeals Court decisions, and the related criminal charges.