Category Archives: Uncategorized
My town has pursued me civilly for violations without merit and continues to; is there anything I can do to recoup the damage done?
29 June 2024 Answer: Yes, you may have a claim for malicious prosecution and/or abuse of process. In Massachusetts, malicious prosecution includes not only the malicious bringing of criminal charges, the situation normally thought of, but also applies to the malicious bringing of civil claims. And you may have a claim for abuse of process, […]
I am litigating a matter and found a court rule that conflicts with a statute, which one controls and what should I do?
25 June 2024 Answer: When there is an irreconcilable conflict, the statute controls. It happens more than you would think in the law, two different legal authorities conflict and you are left to decide which to follow. With decisional authorities (case law), it is much easier to address as there is a hierarchy of judicial […]
Discovery obligations when suing a corporate defendant: does the corporation have to probe its employees?
14 June 2024 If you find yourself in the position of suing a corporate entity it is likely you will be facing the difficulty of obtaining discovery, that is usually defined holistically as relevant “information,” but usually boils down to sworn statements and documents, from your corporate defendant. In that case, you typically encounter resistance […]
My attorney tells me I must provide information to the other side in my civil suit and I don’t want to provide it, what should I do?
9 January 2024 Answer: Hand it over; or expect to face the consequences. It is common for litigants to not want to share information with their adversary, but that is required under our system of law, at least for relevant and requested information. Mass. R. Civ. P. There are serious consequences for not turning over […]
I just learned that my attorney is facing an ethics charge, what should I do?
21 December 2023 Answer: Learn the ethics complaint process (timeline), the likelihood of suspension occurring in your attorney’s case, and consider changing counsel, and do all this right away. There is a process to an ethics complaint. It can take a while. There are a few stages of ‘investigation.’ If it gets to the serious […]
Rely on a clerk’s legal advice to your peril.
28 September 2023 Clerks are an integral part of the legal process. They are the front line and affect a lot more than you think. Lawyers and (pro se, that means self-represented) litigants alike interface with clerks regularly and frequently. Despite the exclusively legal subject matter they deal with and the multitude of legal, and […]
Measure twice and cut once, they say, and this applies with restraining orders.
22 September 2023 Someone is harassing/abusing you and you want to seek some sort of order from a court, typically called by people a “restraining order.” You head down to court without any advice from an attorney, because hey, who needs that, and fill out some documents the clerk hands you after asking you a […]
Life is not fair in the world of consumer protection.
11 September 2023 You have been the victim of an unfair business practice and it has caused you damage. The kind of act that evokes the response, “ouhh, that is mean” when you describe to another of how this business conducted itself. You seek assistance from an attorney to address the matter and he tells […]
Sanctions for spoliation are getting serious.
29 August 2023 Spoliation is the destruction of material that can be used as evidence in a (civil) court case, either intentionally or negligently. Destruction of even potential evidence, in other words, even before a lawsuit is filed, can be considered spoliation. The typical mischief at hand today in our ever increasing electronic world is […]
I am a public employee and I think I might have been fired for my first amendment expressions, what can I do and what do I have to prove?
24 February 2023 Answer: You can bring a claim in court, and what you have to prove is to meet the burden shifting test enunciated in a 1977 United States Supreme Court decision named Mt. Healthy City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle. The Mt. Healthy standard was just applied to a recent case […]