I recently participated in a panel discussion for a mediation course at a local law school. A well-known full time mediator and a U.S. federal magistrate judge who regularly conducts mediations in the federal court were with me. A highly engaged class of law students...
Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93A, § 2 ("Chapter 93A") states: "Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful." From that simple statement, numerous acts and practices...
Articles XII and XV of the Massachusetts Constitution guarantee the right to a trial by jury, but the choice of whether to exercise that right is a strategic decision that often depends upon the facts and circumstances of a case. A case where the judge serves as...
Supreme Judicial Court Rule 1:18 encompasses the Uniform Rules on Dispute Resolution ("Rules"). The Rules govern court-connected dispute resolution services provided in civil and criminal cases in the Commonwealth's trial courts. One of the express purposes of the...
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently issued a decision in a divorce case called Jankovich v. Jankovich. It was a Rule 1:28 decision, which is primarily directed to the parties and, therefore, may not fully address the facts of the case or the appellate panel's...
The Court of Appeals recently issued an interesting decision, Kitras v. Town of Aquinnah, 87 Mass. App. Ct. 10 (2015), concerning easements and accessibility rights to parcels of land owned in the late 1800s by members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Martha's...
A Superior Court judge recently expressed little patience with the Massachusetts Division of Banks's (the "Division's") failure to hold a hearing prior to issuing cease and desist letters, calling it "disturbing" that two statutes requiring hearings "were completely...
As this blog has chronicled in the past, it is extremely difficult for an arbitral award to be vacated. The Federal Arbitration Act and many state arbitral acts provide very limited grounds for vacatur, as courts are reluctant to second-guess an arbitrator's decision....
In a decision handed down on June 25, 2015, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recognized a "parental privilege" to use reasonable physical force to discipline a minor child as an affirmative defense in a criminal action. (See Com. v. Dorvil, 472 Mass. 1...
Suffolk Superior Court in Boston is home to an innovative session called the Business Litigation Session, commonly abbreviated as "BLS". Brought about by the advocacy of administrative judges, civil litigators, and leaders in the business community, the BLS has served...
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