Chapter 212

Section 1. The superior court department of the trial court of the commonwealth, established pursuant to section 1 of chapter 211B, shall consist of 82 justices appointed to the department. The justice as provided under section 1 of chapter 211B as the chief justice for the super…

Section 12. If, upon an appeal in a civil action authorized by law, the appellant fails to enter and prosecute his appeal, the court may, upon complaint of the appellee, affirm the former judgment or render such other judgment as law and justice require.

Section 13. If, by mistake or accident, an appeal to the superior court is not duly entered therein, or if, for a like reason, a complaint founded on an omission to enter an appeal has not been entered by the appellee, the court, upon petition filed within one year after the appe…

Section 14. A regular sitting or regular sittings of the court in the several counties shall be held in each year in each of the following places:— For Barnstable, at Barnstable; For Berkshire, at Pittsfield; For Bristol, at Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River; For Dukes county, …

Section 14A. Subject to section fourteen of chapter two hundred and fourteen, the chief justice of the superior court department shall establish from time to time a regular sitting or regular sittings of said court at each of the places named in section fourteen of this chapter, …

Section 19. The clerks of the courts, and in Suffolk county of the superior court department, may maintain regularly established offices in such cities and towns as may be designated by the chief justice of the superior court department.

Section 19A. The justices of the superior court may appoint for a term of five years, and may at any time for cause remove, a special master, who shall receive from the commonwealth a salary of five thousand dollars. He shall perform such administrative duties pertaining to the c…

Section 1A. The deputy court administrator as provided under section 1 of chapter 211B shall, subject to the superintendence authority of the supreme judicial court as provided in section 3 of chapter 211, have the power, authority and responsibility of a deputy court administrat…

Section 2. The court shall be held by one of the justices, and when so held shall have and exercise all the power and jurisdiction committed to said court. The chief justice shall make such assignments for the attendance of a justice at the several times and places appointed for …

Section 20. Except as provided in section twenty-nine, in counties in which separate sittings of the court are established for civil and criminal business, criminal cases only shall be tried by jury at the criminal sittings, and civil cases only at the civil sittings; but jurors …

Section 20A. The superior court may in counties where more than one session is held simultaneously for civil or criminal business or for civil and criminal business require that jurors be held in a central pool and assigned to the several sessions in such manner as the court shal…

Section 21. The chief justice may, by written order to the sheriff, order a special jury for a sitting for criminal business to be held in any county at such time and place as may be appointed in such order. The sheriff shall give notice thereof as directed in the order therefor;…

Section 22. Every Monday shall be a return day in the superior court department for the entry of suits upon recognizances and bonds in criminal cases held in the district court department. Such suits may be made returnable at the election of the district attorney at any such retu…

Section 23. The chief justice may, by written order to the sheriff, cause the grand jury in any county to be assembled at a time and place appointed therein.

Section 24. At a sitting of the court at which criminal business may be transacted, cases arising under chapters one hundred and nineteen, two hundred and forty-eight, one hundred and thirty-eight, one hundred and thirty-nine and two hundred and seventy-three shall have precedenc…

Section 25. If a case is on trial at the end of a sitting, such sitting may be continued, and jurors serving in such case may be required to serve until the case is finished.

Section 26. The records of courts, including electronic records, which are transferred to the superior court shall remain in custody of the clerks, whether in physical or electronic form. In Suffolk county, the clerk of said court for civil business shall have the custody of said…

Section 26A. The superior court may, upon the application of either party, order a jury-waived civil action where any right, title or interest in land is involved, including actions for specific performance of contracts, removed to the land court for trial and disposition. Upon t…

Section 29. A prisoner held in jail for trial upon an indictment for an offence not punishable by death or by imprisonment for life, or so held upon an appeal, at any time except during a sitting of the superior court for criminal business in the county where he is held, may peti…

Section 3. The court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of civil actions for the foreclosure of mortgages, and of real and mixed actions, except those of which the land court or district courts have jurisdiction, of complaints for flowing lands, and of claims against the …

Section 30. In any action or proceeding involving or arising under section twenty B, twenty C or twenty-four of chapter one hundred and forty-nine, or section six or six A of chapter two hundred and fourteen, the chief justice shall designate three associate justices to hear and …

Section 3A. (a) A clerk-magistrate in the superior court shall not accept for filing a complaint or other pleading which commences a civil action for money damages, except as otherwise provided by law, unless it is accompanied by a statement signed, by hand or by electronic means…

Section 4. The court shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions, except those of which other courts have exclusive original jurisdiction.

Section 5. The court shall have jurisdiction of all civil actions and proceedings which are legally brought before it by appeal or removal.

Section 6. The court shall have original jurisdiction of all crimes. Crimes committed in that part of Scituate described in chapter three hundred and ninety-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and twelve shall be within the territorial jurisdiction of the court both in Norfolk c…

Section 7. The clerk of the courts for the county in which an indictment for a capital crime has been entered, or, in the county of Suffolk, the clerk of the superior court for criminal business, shall forthwith send notice thereof, with a copy of the indictment, to the chief or …

Section 8. If an appeal or a bill of exceptions in a case, civil or criminal, has been duly entered in the appeals court or supreme judicial court, any security taken in the case, by bond, attachment or otherwise, shall stand as if no judgment had been entered or exception taken …

Section 9. Orders or decrees of the supreme judicial court upon questions arising in a case pending in the superior court shall be entered of record in the superior court, and such case shall be disposed of as law and justice require, conformably to the rescript or order of the s…