Attorney Joe Serpa has defended criminal cases in the Massachusetts District Courts and Boston Municipal Court since 1995. These posts cover Massachusetts criminal law as it is practiced. Mr. Serpa explains statutes, case law, court-by-court procedure, and how charges are defended and resolved. These pages are written for defendants, licensed professionals, students, tradespeople, and non-citizens who need to understand what a Massachusetts criminal charge means and what the defense options are.
How Massachusetts 209A extension hearings are decided: the plaintiff’s continuing burden, cross-examination, and the digital record. The Woburn result is the latest of many extension denials for this office.
Continue reading ›That recording on your phone may be a felony. How Massachusetts courts treat secret recordings and Ring camera audio in domestic violence and 209A cases.
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 The Brighton Division of the Boston Municipal Court handles criminal cases arising in Allston and Brighton, including fake ID complaint applications, student party cases, disorderly conduct allegations, assaults, OUI charges, license offenses, theft cases, and domestic incidents. Many clients are…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 The BMC South Boston Division serves South Boston, a district that now spans two economies at once. The old neighborhood still sends the division the cases it always has, while the Seaport supplies a steady stream of matters from a…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 The BMC Roxbury Division serves Roxbury and takes in the Fenway and Kenmore area, which puts Northeastern students, Longwood hospital staff, and Fenway residents on the same morning list as lifelong Roxbury families. It hears one of the heaviest dockets…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Criminal defense in the Charlestown Division of the Boston Municipal Court The BMC Charlestown Division serves one neighborhood, Charlestown, from a courthouse in the shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument, and its small scale is its defining feature. Cases get…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Criminal defense in the BMC East Boston Division The BMC East Boston Division serves East Boston and Winthrop, and it hears one docket that no other courthouse in Massachusetts shares, the cases that arise at Logan Airport. That combination gives…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 The BMC West Roxbury Division serves West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Hyde Park, the residential southwest of the city, and its docket looks like the neighborhoods it serves, domestic cases from family homes, motor vehicle cases from the parkways, and working…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 The Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court handles criminal cases arising in downtown Boston, including fake ID complaint applications, bar and restaurant incidents, shoplifting allegations, assaults, disorderly conduct, OUI charges, and other cases involving students, professionals, residents, commuters, and…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Brookline District Court at 360 Washington Street in Brookline Village is one of several Massachusetts district courts whose entire jurisdiction is a single town, and that concentration produces the most distinctive docket in Norfolk County. The courthouse sits a short…
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