For the second time in a year, the usually mundane Uniform Law to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without the State in Criminal Proceedings, G.L.c. 233, §13A, is at the center of an impo...
Allegations of wrongful convictions due to police or prosecutorial misconduct seem to be on the rise. Here in Massachusetts, between January 2020 and December 2021, at least nine men were release...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2023/04/21/time-for-new-emphasis-on-prosecutorial-oversight/
The current flood of cases inundating the Probate & Family Court has put a spotlight on the longstanding and dire shortage of judges in that department. Over the past several years, innovation an...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2023/03/17/legislature-must-address-probate-court-shortages/
A Suffolk Superior Court jury recently awarded $33 million to a man who spent 36 years in prison for a murder he maintains he did not commit. The jury deliberated for only two hours before return...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/10/28/wrongful-conviction-statute-must-be-revised/
It’s safe to say Probate & Family Court Judge Edward M. Ginsburg wasn’t the first to feel that he still had more to give the legal community when he hit the state’s mandatory retirement age...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/10/07/senior-partners-milestone-something-to-celebrate/
Back at the beginning of the pandemic, court leaders had to scramble to find ways to allow critical business to proceed while protecting court employees and the public. That required a crash cour...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/09/16/superior-court-makes-right-move-on-zoom-hearings/
The recently concluded budget season on Beacon Hill was cause for celebration in some quarters of the legal community. For example, Anthony J. Benedetti, chief counsel of the Committee for Public...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/08/19/its-time-to-take-care-of-court-interpreters/
A recent decision from the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board demonstrates the need for changes in the public employee retirement statute.
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/07/29/public-employee-retirement-statute-needs-revision/
The Supreme Judicial Court will soon decide what remedy is available to the tens of thousands of defendants who pleaded guilty to OUI offenses, only to later learn of widespread misconduct at the...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/07/08/breath-test-defendants-should-be-allowed-new-trials/
Structural issues in the criminal justice system took decades — if not centuries — to create, and no one magical piece of legislation or court decision will dismantle them. Instead, it will t...
https://masslawyersweekly.com/2022/06/24/in-criminal-trials-defendants-deserve-rebuttal/