Chapter 218

Section 1. The district court department, established under section 1 of chapter 211B, shall consist of divisions, 1 for each of the judicial districts hereinafter enumerated, and whenever the words "district court'', "municipal court'' or "court'' are used in this chapter, unles…

Section 10. The clerk of a district court may, subject to the approval of the court administrator as to compliance with personnel standards promulgated pursuant to section 8 of chapter 211B, appoint one or more assistant clerks for whose official acts the clerk shall be responsib…

Section 10A. The clerk of each district court, except the central division of the Boston municipal court department, may, designate such employees in his office, as in his judgment may be necessary for the convenience of the public, as deputy assistant clerks of said court, who s…

Section 11. In case of the absence, death or removal of a salaried assistant clerk of the district court department and the Boston municipal court department, the clerk, subject to the approval of the court administrator as to compliance with personnel standards promulgated pursu…

Section 12. The clerks, assistant clerks, temporary clerks and temporary assistant clerks of said courts shall be sworn, and in the case of any such assistant clerk, temporary clerk or temporary assistant clerk the oath of office may be administered by the justice or a special or…

Section 13. The records, papers and documents of the district courts may, subject to the approval of the supervisor of public records, be stored and kept in the trial court electronic document management system or in fireproof rooms, vaults and safes, provided by the commonwealth…

Section 14. Clerks and assistant clerks of district courts may sign process issued by the said courts, and court records, documents or other legal papers, or copies thereof, relating to criminal, delinquent, wayward and neglected cases made or issued by such clerks or assistant c…

Section 15. The chief justice for the district court department, and the chief justice for the Boston municipal court department, shall prescribe the times for holding civil and criminal trials in their respective departments, and the divisions thereof, except where such times ar…

Section 16. The clerk of a division of the district court department before entering upon the performance of his official duties, and thereafter, at intervals of not more than one year, so long as he continues to hold such office, shall give to the commonwealth a bond, conditione…

Section 17. A justice, clerk or assistant clerk of a district court shall not be retained or employed as an attorney in an action, complaint or proceeding pending in the court to which he is appointed, or which has been examined or tried therein; and a special justice shall not b…

Section 18. A justice, special justice acting in the place of the justice, clerk or assistant clerk of a district court shall not receive any fee or compensation to his own use, other than his regular salary or allowance, for making complaints or issuing in any capacity warrants,…

Section 19. Except as otherwise provided by law, the district court and Boston municipal court departments shall have original jurisdiction of civil actions for money damages. The actions may proceed in the courts only if there is no reasonable likelihood that recovery by the pla…

Section 19A. (a) A clerk-magistrate in a district court or in the Boston municipal court shall not accept for filing any 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 sign…

Section 19B. (a) Except as otherwise provided by law, all civil actions for money damages, or summary process actions, filed in a district court or the Boston municipal court shall be subject to 1 trial, with or without a jury of 6, in the district court department or in the Bost…

Section 19C. The district court and Boston municipal court departments of the trial court shall have the same equitable powers and jurisdiction as is provided for the superior court pursuant to chapter 214 and the same authority with regard to declaratory judgments as is provided…

Section 19D. The first justice of a district court may appoint, subject to appropriation, and subject to the approval of the chief justice of the district court department, such number of housing specialists as the first justice of said department may from time to time determine.…

Section 2. The municipal courts in Boston shall have concurrent jurisdiction over all waters, islands and places not included in the district of any one of said courts or of the district court of Chelsea, and within the jurisdiction of the superior court for Suffolk county, excep…

Section 20. District courts shall also have jurisdiction of civil actions against executors and administrators under section ten of chapter two hundred and thirty, and shall further have jurisdiction of civil actions against bail taken in a civil action in the district courts.

Section 21. There shall be within the district court department and the Boston municipal court department a simple, informal and inexpensive procedure, hereinafter called the procedure, for the determination, according to the rules of substantive law, of claims in the nature of c…

Section 22. The procedure shall include the beginning of actions with an entry fee of $20 for claims of $500 for less and $30 for claims of greater than $500, plus the surcharge required by section four C of chapter two hundred and sixty-two, but without summons and complaint and…

Section 23. Every cause begun under the procedure shall be determined initially in the district court department. No such cause may be removed for trial in the superior court department. In any action for property damage caused by a motor vehicle where the action is transferred t…

Section 24. The court may, in its discretion, transfer a cause begun under the procedure to the regular civil docket for formal hearing and determination as though it had been begun by summons and complaint, and may impose terms upon such transfer.

Section 25. In any civil action begun by summons and complaint which might have been begun under the procedure, the rules for the procedure may provide, or the court may by special order direct, that the cost to be recovered by the plaintiff, if he prevails, shall be eliminated i…

Section 26. The district courts and divisions of the Boston municipal court department shall have original jurisdiction, concurrent with the superior court, of the following offenses, complaint of which shall be brought in the court of the district court department, or in the Bos…

Section 26A. Trial of criminal offenses in the Boston municipal court department and in the district court department shall be by a jury of six persons, unless the defendant files a written waiver and consent to be tried by the court without a jury. Such waiver shall not be recei…

Section 27. The district court may impose the same penalties as the superior court for all crimes of which they have jurisdiction, except that they may not impose a sentence to the state prison; provided, however, that the divisions of the juvenile court department shall have the…

Section 27A. (a) Every division of the district court department is authorized to hold jury sessions for the purpose of conducting jury trials of cases commenced in the several courts of criminal offenses over which the district courts have original jurisdiction under the provisi…

Section 28. District courts may require persons found guilty of any crime within their final jurisdiction, except a violation of by-laws, orders, ordinances, rules and regulations, made by cities, towns and public officers, or of the laws and regulations relative to the public he…

Section 2A. Each district court shall have civil jurisdiction of actions local or transitory begun in such court which should have been brought in some other district court, to the extent that the court in which the action is begun may try and dispose of the case if the question …

Section 3. The central, Charlestown, South Boston, and East Boston divisions of the Boston municipal court department, shall have and exercise, concurrently with each other, the same criminal jurisdiction as said courts have within their respective districts over all islands, exc…

Section 30. They shall commit or bind over for trial in the superior court persons brought before them who appear to be guilty of crimes not within their final jurisdiction, and may so commit or bind over persons brought before them who appear to be guilty of crimes within their …

Section 32. District courts may receive complaints and issue warrants and other processes for the apprehension of persons charged with crime and found within their county, or who after committing crime therein escape therefrom, returnable before a court of the county having juris…

Section 32A. An application for a criminal complaint submitted to the district court by a police department against a person arrested for a felony offense shall be accompanied by an offense-based tracking number. An otherwise valid application for a complaint submitted by a polic…

Section 33. A clerk, assistant clerk, temporary clerk or temporary assistant clerk, may receive complaints, administer to complainants the oath required thereto, and issue warrants, search warrants and summonses, returnable as required when such process are issued by said courts.…

Section 34. Said courts may dispense with the issuing of a warrant if the person charged with a crime has been arrested without a warrant and brought before the court or admitted to bail; but in such case the officer making the arrest shall endorse upon the complaint a statement …

Section 35. A justice or special justice of a district court, or a justice of the peace who is also a clerk or assistant clerk of such a court, may at any time receive complaints and issue warrants and summonses, under his own hand and seal, and such justice or special justice ma…

Section 35A. If a complaint is received by a district court, or by a justice, associate justice or special justice thereof, or by a clerk, assistant clerk, temporary clerk or temporary assistant clerk thereof under section 32, 33 or 35, as the case may be, the person against whom…

Section 36. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, may from time to time, upon the petition of the aldermen or the selectmen of any town within the judicial district of a district court, except a town in which the clerk of such court resides, designate and comm…

Section 37. District courts, justices, special justices, clerks, assistant clerks, temporary clerks and temporary assistant clerks thereof may issue summonses and other processes for witnesses in criminal cases, and at all hearings upon applications for complaints wherein a perso…

Section 38. District courts and Boston municipal court divisions shall always be open and business may be transacted at any time, except as provided in section six of chapter two hundred and twenty. Sittings of the courts shall be held in the courthouses or other places provided …

Section 39. Justices and clerks of district courts, except the central division of the Boston municipal court department, may procure all law books relating to the laws of the commonwealth, including the reports of the supreme judicial court, the Massachusetts digests, all blank …

Section 4. District courts shall be courts of record. They shall be courts of superior and general jurisdiction with reference to all cases and matters in which they have jurisdiction, and no order, decree, judgment, sentence, warrant, writ or process made, issued or pronounced b…

Section 40. A special justice of a district court who does not serve full-time in accordance with the provisions of section six A shall sit on the Boston municipal court department by assignment in the same manner as if he were serving full-time. When such a special justice, who …

Section 41. A special justice of a district court shall at all times have and exercise all the powers and duties of a justice of such court, so far as to render decisions, make orders, and perform such other acts as he may deem necessary or proper in connection with or relating t…

Section 42. If no justice or special justice is present at the time and place appointed for holding a session of a district court, the sheriff or any of his deputies or the clerk may adjourn the court from day to day or from time to time, giving notice thereof as circumstances ma…

Section 42A. The justice, as provided under section 1 of chapter 211B, as the chief justice for the district court department, in addition to his judicial powers and duties, shall, subject to the superintendence authority of the supreme judicial court as provided in section 3 of …

Section 42B. The deputy court administrator for the district court department, 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 responsi…

Section 43. The chief justice shall from time to time make and promulgate uniform rules of practice and procedure, subject to the approval of the supreme judicial court, including rules for the preparation and submission of reports, the allowance of reports which a justice shall …

Section 43A. The chief justice shall be authorized to require uniform practices, to prescribe forms of blanks and records, and to superintend the keeping of records by clerks. He may authorize any justice or special justice to hold a session of any division at another division or…

Section 43B. In addition to the powers set forth in section forty-three A, the chief justice for the district court department shall prescribe official forms to be used in all divisions of said department. Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the provisions of …