The Massachusetts District Court And Boston Municipal Court System: Criminal Defense Law

What Criminal Cases do Massachusetts District Courts and Boston Municipal Courts hear?

Boston criminal defense attorney Joe Serpa has nearly three decades of winning dismissals and acquittals for clients in the statewide Massachusetts District Courts and the Boston Municipal Courts (“BMC”) in central Boston, West Roxbury, Brighton, East Boston, Dorchester and Roxbury.

The Massachusetts District Court and Boston Municipal Court System vs. the Massachusetts Superior Court

The Massachusetts District Courts and the eight Boston Municipal Courts (BMC) hear the same kinds of criminal cases. As such, these courts have identical “subject matter jurisdiction” (the types of crimes these courts can hear) in Massachusetts.

These courts also hear a larger volume of criminal cases than the Massachusetts Superior Courts. The Superior Courts generally hear fewer and more serious criminal cases.

The best way to distinguish the District Courts and BMC from the Massachusetts Superior Courts is to think of the sentences that the judges of each court can impose on defendants. Judges in the BMC/District Courts can punish defendants to sentences only in the Massachusetts House of Correction. BMC and District Court judges cannot sentence defendants to the Massachusetts State Prison. (Sentences to the Massachusetts House of Correction are limited to a maximum of two-and-one-half years per offense. The Massachusetts State Prison can accept all sentences up to and including life in prison.)

The jurisdictional difference between the BMC and Massachusetts District Courts versus the Massachusetts Superior Courts is about penal institutions, therefore. It is not directly about misdemeanors versus felonies.

The Massachusetts legislature writes maximum and minimum sentences into our criminal laws. The statues also specify where a sentence may be served, whether the House of Correction, State Prison or either the House or Correction or State Prison. (A felony in Massachusetts is defined as any offense punishable by a state prison sentence, whether there is also a House of Correction sentence in the law. A misdemeanor in Massachusetts is defined as an offense not punishable by a State Prison sentence.) The Massachusetts Superior Courts can hear any criminal case. The Boston Municipal Court and the Massachusetts District Courts can hear felonies and misdemeanors as long as they include House of Correction sentences, even if they also include State Prison sentences.

It’s a bit confusing but here is the simplest way to think of it. If the criminal statute a person is accused of (for example, armed robbery) includes only a State Prison sentence, only the Superior Court can hear that case to a final outcome. If the criminal statute includes both House of Correction or State Prison sentences (for example, larceny from a person), either BMC/District Courts or the Superior Courts can hear the case.

Every Massachusetts criminal offense has a maximum sentence written into the law specific to that offense. For example, an assault and battery can be punished with a maximum of two-and-one-half years in the house of correction and no minimum. This means that a judge can (although it is very rare) sentence a person convicted in Massachusetts to that maximum period. It also means that a judge can, and often will, sentence a person to no imprisonment at all, and instead order probation or payment of fines or court fees.

While the Boston Municipal Courts and the District Courts have similar subject matter jurisdiction, each Individual court’s location in Boston and Massachusetts determines its “territorial jurisdiction” (the counties, towns or cities where the alleged offenses occurred) that these courts can hear.

Any term of imprisonment is an absolute last resort in a Massachusetts criminal cases. Our criminal defense clients nearly always avoid conviction and especially periods of incarceration. Outright dismissals or acquittals are always the objective in our Massachusetts criminal defense cases. Judges in the BMC and Massachusetts District Courts often have many remedies available to address criminal cases, including dismissal, pretrial diversion, pretrial probation, a continuance without a finding (CWOF), probation after a guilty plea or after a guilty verdict.

Greater Boston criminal attorney Joe Serpa has deep command over the meandering rules that determine how a criminal case can begin in the Massachusetts District Courts or Boston Municipal Courts. Criminal cases in the Boston Municipal Courts or the Massachusetts District Courts often begin with a private clerk magistrate’s hearing. This hearing is an opportunity to stop a public criminal case early on and save you from a criminal record. Other BMC or District Court cases begin with an arrest or a notice to appear for arraignment. Sometimes, the investigating Boston, local or State police can decide whether you will have an either clerk magistrate hearing, notice to appear for a Massachusetts arraignment or an arrest. However, certain offenses do not allow the police to arrest you and sometimes require a clerk magistrate’s hearing.

Again, some offense require the police to begin with a private clerk’s hearing. Contact Boston criminal lawyer Joe Serpa for advice on whether your Massachusetts criminal case began correctly. Our experienced and skilled Boston criminal defense firm can get your cases dismissed if you were unfairly deprived of a clerk magistrate’s hearing in Massachusetts or if you were illegally arrested.

Public criminal cases in the BMC or Massachusetts District Courts begin with criminal complaints first heard at arraignment, and are often followed by a sequence of future court dates. Once arraigned, your case will be formalized onto your criminal record, or CORI. The court dates that occur after arraignment are called Massachusetts pretrial conferences, compliance and election dates, motion hearings and trials, whether by judge or jury. Ordinarily, you must appear at all of these dates. However, Mr. Serpa can often secure permission from judges to have our clients “excused” from routine dates. That way, our criminal defense clients can go to works, travel, raise their kids and live their lives while we do the hard work of defending their Massachusetts criminal cases.

Ultimately, an effective Boston criminal defense attorney will achieve dismissal of your case early on. However, many Massachusetts criminal cases cannot be dismissed so quickly. Massachusetts’s district attorneys offices often have “zero tolerance” polices for certain offenses, particularly OUI | DUI and domestic violence offenses. Criminal defense attorney Joe Serpa often achieves dismissal or acquittals of these cases on dates scheduled for trial, often because witnesses do not appear to testify, or exercise various privileges against testifying. A Massachusetts criminal case must end on the date set for trial, whether by trial, a plea or dismissal.

Serpa Law Office explores every available opportunity for dismissal for every criminal defense client in the Boston Municipal Courts and the Massachusetts District Courts. Any plea, whether a CWOF or a guilty plea, is a last resort. Boston’s Serpa Law Office’s schedules trials as a rule for clients to pursue that every possible route to dismissal . Mr. Serpa routinely tries cases to acquittal for our clients in all sorts of offenses, with a winning trial record that is difficult to match.

Please give our Boston criminal defense law office a call at (617) 936-0201 to discuss the best possible outcome in your criminal defense case in the Massachusetts District Court or Boston Municipal Court.