Clinical Programs: Massachusetts Court Resources
- Court Rules
- Courts You May Have to Practice In
- Research Guide to Massachusetts Law
- Massachusetts Jury Instructions
- Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers
- Important Guidelines for the Massachusetts Courts
Court Rules
Massachusetts has rules of court that apply throughout the state, including Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, and Appellate Procedure. (There is no codified set of Rules of Evidence in Massachusetts.)
In addition, there are separate procedural rules for the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court and for each department of the Trial Court (including the Superior Court, Housing Court, Juvenile Court, Land Court, Probate and Family Court, the District Courts and Boston Municipal Court). Attorneys who practice before those courts must follow these rules in addition to the Rules of Civil, Criminal, or Appellate Procedure.
These rules of individual courts often address procedural issues such as filing deadlines, guidelines for pleadings and memoranda submitted to that court, even rules about whether one can cite unpublished opinions in documents submitted to that court. These rules may include forms to be used in practice before that court.
The library's guide on Massachusetts legal research provides more complete information about resources for Court Rules for state and federal courts in Massachusetts.
Sources for the rules of Massachusetts state courts include the following:
Massachusetts Rules of Court - State
Law Mass Collection (upstairs) KFM2929 A193 2000
Law Reserve KFM2929 A193 2000
Law Clinic LibraryCourt Rules volumes of the two annotated statutory codes for Massachusetts: Annotated Laws of Massachusetts (published by LexisNexis) and the Massachusetts General Laws Annotated (published by West Group).
Law Mass Collection (upstairs)Massachusetts Court Rules
- database provided by the Social Law Library, accessible only from B.U. School of Law computers
Massachusetts Court Rules
- a LexisNexis database accessible by password onlyMassachusetts Court Rules
- a Westlaw database accessible by password onlyMassachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure
- a free online database provided by the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
Courts You May Have to Practice In
Massachusetts Judicial Branch Homepage
From this page, select "Courts" from the menu on the left side column to obtain information about all the Massachusetts state courts you are likely to encounter. Each individual court site provides directions to the court, the name of the Chief Judge and administrative staff.
Research Guide to Massachusetts Law
For sources of Massachusetts court and administrative agency decisions, state statutes, and the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, please refer to the library's Massachusetts Legal Research guide.
The research guide provides information about accessing the decisions of some courts that have no official print reporters, such as the Housing Court and Land Court.
Massachusetts Jury Instructions
Massachusetts Civil Jury Instructions
- a LexisNexis database accessible by password only- a Westlaw database accessible by password only (database identifier: ma-jiciv)
Massachusetts Criminal Jury Instructions
- a LexisNexis database accessible by password only- a Westlaw database accessible by password only (database identifier: ma-jicrim)
Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers
Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers
This site includes the Rules of Professional Conduct and all Disciplinary Decisions and Admonitions (beginning 1999).
Important Guidelines for the Massachusetts Courts
Guidelines and Standards
This page from the Massachusetts Court System web site provides Child Support Guidelines, Sentencing Guidelines, Domestic Violence Guidelines, and other standards applied by Massachusetts courts.Committee on Judicial Ethics
This page provides the Code of Judicial Conduct, the Rules of the Committee on Judicial Ethics and Advisory Opinions.
Page maintained by Steve Donweber
Last updated: August 2006