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.
By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Woburn District Court at 30 Pleasant Street covers seven Middlesex towns, Woburn, Burlington, Winchester, Wilmington, Stoneham, Reading, and North Reading, and sits beside one of the most consequential pieces of asphalt in Massachusetts criminal practice, the junction of I-93 and…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Waltham District Court at 38 Linden Street serves a three-town Middlesex jurisdiction, Waltham, Watertown, and Weston, anchored by the Route 128 technology corridor and two universities. The mix produces a docket where the defendant is usually someone with a great…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Somerville District Court at 175 Fellsway is a single-city court, and that focus gives its docket a personality. The jurisdiction is Somerville alone, and Somerville is the most densely populated city in New England, with roughly eighty thousand people living…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Dedham District Court sits at 631 High Street, directly across from the Norfolk County Superior Court. The two buildings frame what makes this jurisdiction distinctive, because Dedham is the historic county seat and the registry and superior court cluster have…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Quincy District Court is the busiest courthouse in Norfolk County, and it is the South Shore court Serpa Law Office knows best for a simple reason. Our Quincy Office at 500 Victory Road, Suite 400A. sits less than two miles…
Continue reading ›Massachusetts judges do not apply one general fairness test to every sealing and expungement request. A judge decides whether to seal a dismissal or nolle prosequi under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100C. A judge also decides whether to grant a time-based expungement petition after the Commissioner of Probation certifies eligibility and whether to grant a…
Continue reading ›Attorney Joe Serpa is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate who has practiced Massachusetts criminal defense since 1995. On November 25, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in Gravito v. Commonwealth, No. SJC-13705 (Mass. Nov. 25, 2025), that M.G.L. c. 276, § 100C permits a defendant and appellate counsel to obtain the defendant’s own…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On May 7, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Chhieng, which affects every noncitizen who resolved a Massachusetts criminal case with a plea or an admission. The court held that the immigration warning many District Court judges gave…
Continue reading ›By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On June 29, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held in Chatrie v. United States, No. 25-112, 609 U.S. ___ (2026), that police conducted a Fourth Amendment search when they acquired a suspect’s Google Location History data, because a person…
Continue reading ›A defendant may decline to testify at a hearing on a Massachusetts 209A restraining order (abuse prevention order) while a related domestic violence charge or investigation is pending. The civil judge may then draw an adverse inference against the defendant. A defendant who testifies usually does far greater damage to the criminal case. Testifying gives…
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