Foreclosure Assistance for Massachusetts Homeowners

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has organized various grants to address the foreclosure crisis. If you are in threat of foreclosure, HomeCorps Partnership Grants is paying attorneys at legal aid offices across the state to represent homeowners who qualify at no charge.  Call the HomeCorps Hotline at (617) 573-5333.
For information and more web resources, see our page on Foreclosure.

 

Trial Court Law Libraries' texting service receives Kudos!

LibraryH3lp, the ‘chat’ service used by the Trial Court Law Libraries, gave us some great feedback on the success of our texting service.  It was reported that, in the eight months since we opened our texting gateway, we've received/created almost 5,000 messages! 

According to LibraryH3lp, “it's one of the top five busiest texting services on LibraryH3lp!"  "You all deserve major kudos on your success!  Your patrons clearly adore your services." 

HOORAY for our Text Messaging Service and for all our patrons who use it!

Sesame Street Helps Children Deal With the Incarceration of a Parent

Sesame Street has just launched  Little Children Big Challenges: Incarceration, designed to help kids  aged three to eight cope with the incarceration of mom or dad.  This toolkit includes resources for caregivers and parents including videos, storybooks, activity sheets and tips for guiding children through this very emotional change in their lives. The toolkit is also available in Spanish and can be downloaded as an app.

While the Sesame Street toolkit is very child friendly and has materials that can be shared directly with children, other excellent material is also available to guide caretakers in talking with children and being honest about the situation.  For example, The Arizona's Children Association has published Arizona Family Members Behind Bars:  Difficult Questions Children Ask ...and Answers that Might Help.  Although some of the specific criminal procedures mentioned may vary by state, this guide has many sample answers about the criminal justice system "from arrest to release" that would apply to questioning children anywhere.

The National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Family & Corrections Network has online libraries for Children of Prisoners in English and Spanish and an Incarcerated Fathers Library, specifically designed to help the incarcerated parent maintain healthy contact with the children.

The American Bar Association Section of Litigation Children's Rights Litigation has recently published two theoretical articles addressed to attorneys, social workers, mental health workers and others.  A Voice for the Young Child with an Incarcerated Parent and Meeting the Needs of Children With an Incarcerated Parent  present best practices for maintaining parent child contact and an exploration of the psychological implications of interrupted parental attachment. 

The Trial Court Law Libraries have a multitude of resources about Criminal Law and Procedure, but the legal treaties and laws are, of course, not written to deal with the resulting turmoil in the lives of the children of the perpetrators. 

Pending legislation to change adult prosecution age to 18 in Massachusetts

House Bill 1432 entitled “An Act to Expand to Juvenile Jurisdiction, Increase Public Safety and Protect Children From Harm,”  has recently passed the House of Representatives unanimously. It would raise the age at which a young offender will be prosecuted as an adult from 17 to 18 years old.  One of the goals of the legislation is to prevent recidivism through rehabilitation rather than punishment.  Another important part of the bill is that it keeps parents involved in the process should their child be arrested. Under current law, because 17-year-olds are treated as adults, parents need not be notified if their high-school-age child has been arrested. A high percentage of Massachusetts parents polled oppose this aspect of the current law and want the law to provide that they must be notified if their child is arrested.  Judges will have discretion to impose adult length sentences on young people who commit serious crimes. 

Governor Patrick filed similar legislation in early 2013.  The Governor's office gave the following explanation as to why the legislation is important: "On June 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory criminal sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole, imposed on juveniles who were less than eighteen when they committed their crimes, were unconstitutional. Massachusetts law currently mandates life without parole for juveniles convicted of first degree murder. Accordingly, our state law must change to comply with the Miller decision."

House Bill 1432 must be passed by the Senate and signed into law by the Governor before it becomes effective.

Freedom of Information Supreme Court decision

In a recent Supreme Court decision, McBurney v. Young, the court ruled that a non resident of the state of Virginia does not have the right of access to all public records of the state.  The Virginia statute contains the word "citizen" in its language.  The regulations of the Massachusetts use the word "person."  It is unlikely this case will have any ramifications for Massachusetts.
For more information of Massachusetts law on this topic our page on FOIA is here.

On this day in 1977...

36 Years ago today!   65% Non Smoking Seats 14th June 1977 : Non Smokers win a major battle with Eastern Airlines when Eastern agreed to have at least 65% non smoking seats; after being fined $10,000 by the Aviation Consumer Action Project.
(p. 313 of report) This was a landmark event and the forerunner to smoking being banned on all flights.  Today we would consider it unthinkable for people to smoke on planes!

Click here to see the accomplishments of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.  In 1992, Massachusetts voters created MTCP by passing an initiative petition (Question 1) to raise the state cigarette tax (from $0.26 to $0.51 a pack) to fund tobacco control.  (implemented in January 1993)  The money raised is used to aggressively promote treatment and prevention cigarrete smoking.

Smokers need not apply...  Read this Boston Globe Article dated 12/19/2010 to see how far we've come.   

For more information, see our "Law About Smoking" page

 

Veterans' Court Seminar June 18, 2013

Seminar on Veterans' Court from the Norfolk County Bar Association

 

You are invited to a Seminar on Veterans' Court at the Dedham District Court on June 18, 2013 from 4:30 to 6:00 P.M.

 

Veterans' Court is specifically designed for veterans. It is being administrated by Judge Mary Hogan Sullivan. The seminar is being moderated by Attorney John DeVito. The speakers will be Judge Mary Hogan Sullivan and Attorney Jason Bolio.

 

The seminar will include a discussion on the court, the benefits to veterans and the applicable laws to assist veterans.  Registration is not required.

 

Interlocutory Appeals in Massachusetts State Courts

When you receive an interlocutory decision or order in a case in the Superior Court department, the Housing Court department, the Land Court department, the Juvenile Court department or the Probate and Family Court department and are considering an appeal, the Trial Court Law Libraries have useful resources to help you to be effective.

interlocutory order "An order that relates to some intermediate matter in the case; any order other than a final order. • Most interlocutory orders are not appealable until the case is fully resolved. But by rule or statute, most jurisdictions allow some types of interlocutory orders (such as preliminary injunctions and class-certification orders) to be immediately appealed."

Black's Law Dictionary (9th ed. 2009)

“In most instances, interlocutory relief on appeal is not available on the theory that the aggrieved party should await the final outcome and, if still aggrieved, appeal the whole case.” Massachusetts Practice Series, vol. 41 Appellate Practice (3rd Ed.) section 7.2.

Law:

Mass. General Law Chapter 231, section 118 Temporary appellate relief from interlocutory orders; appeals to appeals court or supreme judicial court

Standing Orders and Rules:

Appeals Court Standing Order Governing Petitions to the Single Justice Pursuant to G.L. C. 231, sec. 118 (First Paragraph)

Standing Order Governing Motions to Stay A Judgment or Execution of Sentence Filed Pursuant to Mass. R.A.P. 6

Mass. Rule of Appellate Procedure 6: Stay or Injunction Pending Appeal

Mass. Rule of Appellate Procedure 20: Form of Briefs, Appendices and Other Papers

Mass. Rule of Civil Procedure 62: Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment

Mass. Rule of Criminal Procedure 15: Interlocutory Appeal

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rule 2:21: Appeal from Single Justice Denial of Relief on Interlocutory Ruling

Information from the Massachusetts Appeals Court Clerk's Office:

Clerk’s Guide – Interlocutory Petitions

Clerk’s Guide – Single Justice Practice

Clerk’s Guide – Motions to Stay Filed Pursuant to Mass. R.A.P. 6

Print and CD Resources:

Appellate Practice in Massachusetts (MCLE) (Chapters 21 and 22)

Single Justice Practice (MCLE 2011)

 

Single Justice Practice (MCLE CD 2011)

Massachusetts Practice Series, vol. 41 Appellate Procedure (3rd Ed.), sections 7.2, 7.3

Massachusetts Practice Series, vol. 30A Criminal Practice and Procedure (3rd Ed.), Chapter 26 Rule 15-Interlocutory Appeal

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

“The Second Amendment [of the U.S. Constitution] states: ‘A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’  There was and remains unanimous agreement that the text of the amendment is ungrammatical.  For more than a century, there was also agreement on what the Second Amendment meant.  According to this understanding, the Second Amendment related only to the rights of citizen militias and imposed no barrier to gun control; in other words, the amendment did not give private individuals a right to bear arms.”

- Jeffrey Toobin, The Oath: the Obama White House and the Supreme Court

In The Oath, Toobin goes on to chronicle the crafting and evolution of “a new understanding of the Second Amendment that eventually commanded five votes on the Supreme Court.”  The ensuing leading case, District of Columbia et al. v. Heller (2008), held that “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. . . The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Part 1 Article 17 of the Massachusetts Constitution deals with the right to keep and bear arms. But as in the Federal realm, case law has long argued “provisions like article 17 were not directed to guaranteeing individual ownership or possession of weapons” (369 Mass. 886).  

The NRA-ILA Institute for Legislative Action has a synopsis of current Massachusetts gun laws. For more on “Massachusetts Law About Guns and Other Weapons” see http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/subject/about/weapons.html .