Search online public court records from Massachusetts state courts for free. UniCourt allows you to lookup civil, family law, probate, small claims, labour, personal injury and other cases from Massachusetts Superior Courts, Justice Courts, Circuit Courts, & more. With UniCourt, you can look up Massachusetts State Court cases, find latest docket information, view case summary, check case status, download court documents, as well as track cases and get alerts on new filings.
At UniCourt, you can look up Massachusetts State Court records by case name, case number, party, attorney, judge, case type, docket entry & more. You can filter search results further by date of filing, jurisdiction, case type, party type, party representation, and more.
One of the thirteen original states in the U.S., the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is home to over 6.9 million people and has an area of 10,565 square miles. The state capital is Boston, which is also the most populous city in Massachusetts. The Greater Boston area encompasses the City of Boston and surrounding areas in other states in New England. Over 8 million people live in the Greater Boston area.
On average, the Massachusetts Court System handles over 1 million cases each year. Massachusetts’s court system consists of a Supreme Judicial Court, the Appeals Court, and the Trial Court departments.
Established in 1692, Massachesetts’s Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), is the oldest appellate court in the Western Hemisphere. The SJC functions as the Commonwealth's highest court. The Court is composed of seven justices, including a Chief Justice. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’s mission is “[t]o promote the rule of law and foster public trust by leading an independent judiciary that assures every person equal access to the fair, timely and impartial resolution of disputes in courts managed with efficiency and professionalism.”
The SJC has jurisdiction over both criminal and civil appeals. The SJC also has authority over the judiciary and the bar, the ability to make or approve rules for the operations of all the courts, and can sometimes provide advisory opinions to the Governor and Legislature on legal matters.
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justices are appointed by the Governor with the aid of the Executive Council. Justices hold office until the mandatory retirement age of 70. Justices hear appeals from September through May of each year, and may hear motions and other statutory proceedings each week as well.
Approximately 800 decisions are rendered by either single justices or panels each year. The SJC has been involved with many important cases in U.S. jurisprudence, including Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, Commonwealth v. Jennison, and Roberts v. City of Boston.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court is a court of general appellate jurisdiction. Appeals Court Justices review decisions made by Trial Court Judges in several kinds of civil and criminal cases. However, appeals from a conviction of first degree murder go directly to the Supreme Judicial Court. The Appeals Court also has jurisdiction over appeals from final decisions of the Appellate Tax Board, the Industrial Accident Board, and the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board.
The Appeals Court is located at the John Adams Courthouse, located at One Pemberton Square, Room 1200, Boston, MA 02108. You can reach the Appeals Court Clerk's Office at (617) 921-4443 and Judges' Lobby at (617) 725-8085.
The Appeals Court has twenty-five statutory justices, including the Chief Justice. As an intermediate appellate court, the Appeals Court usually sits in three judge panels. The composition of the panels changes regularly.
These justices are appointed by the Governor with advice from a Judicial Nominating Commission and approval of the Governor's Council. To be eligible to be an Appeals Court judge, a person must be a U.S. citizen; be a state resident; be a state bar member in good standing; have 13 years of legal experience and training; and be under the age of 70, as retirement is mandatory at 70.
The Massachusetts Trial Courts are organized into the following seven divisions: District Court, Boston Municipal Court, Housing Court, Juvenile Court, Land Court, Probate & Family Court, and Superior Court.
The District Court Department is a trial court that has jurisdiction over many different types of cases, including criminal, civil, housing, juvenile, and mental health cases.
The District Court has jurisdiction over criminal cases involving felonies punishable by a sentence up to five years, and many other specific felonies with greater potential penalties as well as all misdemeanors and all violations of city and town ordinances and by-laws. If a felony does not fall within the District Court’s jurisdiction, the Court can conduct a probable cause hearing to determine if a defendant should be bound over to the Superior Court.
The District Court can conduct jury and jury-waived trials in civil cases. The Court can hear any civil matter in which the amount in controversy does not exceed $50,000, and can try small claims cases involving up to $7,000.
The Massachusetts Trial Court District Court Department operates out of 62 courts across the commonwealth.
The Boston Municipal Court Department “serves the City of Boston, handling both criminal and civil matters while maintaining a commitment to the rule of law, and protecting human dignity through respect, compassion, correction, and the fair resolution of cases.” This department can also review appeals of decisions made by select government agencies on issues like unemployment compensation and firearms licensing.
The Boston Municipal Court Department has 30 judges across eight court divisions.
The Administrative Office of the Boston Municipal Court is located in the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse at 24 New Chardon St., 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. You can reach the Administrative Office by calling (617) 788-8700 or faxing (617) 788-8747.
The Housing Court Department of the Trial Courts handles all issues involving residential housing, including eviction cases, small claims cases, and civil actions involving personal injury, property damage, breach of contract, discrimination. The Housing Court can also hear code enforcement actions and appeals of local zoning board decisions affecting residential housing.
The Housing Court has 15 judges sitting across six divisions.
The Administrative Office of the Housing Court Department is located in the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse at 24 New Chardon St., 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. You can reach the Administrative Office by calling (617) 788-6500.
The mission of the Juvenile Court Department is “to protect children from abuse and neglect and promote opportunities for children to reside in safe, stable, permanent family environments whenever possible, to strengthen families when their children are in need of services, to rehabilitate juveniles, to protect the public from delinquent and criminal activity while holding offenders accountable and addressing the harm suffered by the community and the victim, and to decide all cases fairly and impartially with dedication, integrity and professionalism.”
The Juvenile Court Department is organized into 11 divisions. The Juvenile Court currently has 42 judges sitting across over 40 locations.
The Administrative Office of the Juvenile Court Department is located at 1 Center Plaza, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02108. You can reach the department by calling (617) 788-6550, faxing (617) 788-8965, or emailing admin-jccallctr@jud.state.ma.us.
The Land Court Department of the Trial Courts deals with cases involving real estate and land use, and oversees the Commonwealth’s system for the registration of title to real property.
The Land Court has seven justices, who primarily operate out of 3 Pemberton Square, Boston, MA 02108.
The Probate and Family Court Department handles cases involving families and children, including as divorce, paternity, child support, custody, parenting time, adoption, ending parental rights, abuse prevention, wills, estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, and name changes.
The Administrative Office of the Probate and Family Court Department is located at 3 Center Plaza, Suite 210, Boston, MA 02108. You can reach the Administrative Office by calling (617) 788-6600 or faxing (617) 788-8995.
The Superior Court Department is a trial court of general jurisdiction. The Superior Court Department has exclusive original jurisdiction over first-degree murder cases. The Court has original jurisdiction over all other crimes, civil actions over $50,000, cases where parties are seeking equitable relief, and actions where parties are seeking injunctive relief. The Superior Court also has exclusive authority to hold medical malpractice tribunals, appellate jurisdiction over some administrative proceedings, and can hold naturalization sittings.
The Superior Court Department operates out of 20 courthouses across the commonwealth. Currently, there are 82 Superior Court judges.
The Administrative Office of the Superior Court Department is located in the Suffolk County Courthouse at 3 Pemberton Square, 13th Floor, Boston, MA 02108. You can reach the Administrative Office by calling (617) 788-8130 or faxing (617) 788-8137.
The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) is a state agency charged with investigating complaints that allege that a state court judge has engaged in judicial misconduct or has a disability preventing them from properly performing their judicial duties.
The CJC’s role is to “Preserve both judicial independence and public accountability. Provide a fair and reasonable process to address judicial misconduct and disability. Maintain the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system.”
When appropriate, the CJC may pursue remedial action or discipline against state court judges.
The Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct has nine members. The nine members consist of three judges appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court, three lawyers appointed by the Chief Justice of the Trial Court, and three lay members appointed by the Governor.
UniCourt is your single source for state and federal court records, offering comprehensive court coverage and the most complete and accurate dataset available.
Each day of the week, UniCourt collects all of the newly filed civil and criminal cases in the Massachusetts Courts we cover and lets you search through those new case filings in our CrowdSourced Library™. UniCourt then allows you to track state court litigation and have real-time case alerts sent directly to your inbox. Additionally, UniCourt empowers you to download court documents on-demand without ever having to login to a government court database, and gives you unlimited access to download millions of free state and federal court documents in our CrowdSourced Library™.
UniCourt also gives you access to all federal court records across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
UniCourt’s industry-leading Legal Data APIs provide Enterprise users with on-demand, bulk access to structured data from Massachusetts state and federal courts. Our Legal Data as a Service (LDaaS) collects, organizes, standardizes, and normalizes court data from Massachusetts state courts and all federal courts, and makes it readily available via our UniCourt Enterprise API for business development, competitive intelligence, litigation strategy, and docket management.