Chapter 262

Section 1. The fees of justices of the peace shall be as follows: For a subpoena for one or more witnesses, ten cents. For taking a deposition, fifty cents; for writing the deposition and caption, at the rate of twelve cents a page; for notice to the adverse party, twenty cents. …

Section 10. If it is necessary in the service of civil process for an officer to use a conveyance for a distance exceeding two miles one way, he may be allowed therefor fifteen cents a mile for the distance traveled, not exceeding thirty miles. If he uses the conveyance of anothe…

Section 11. Where the officer is by law directed to give or leave a copy of any process, he may charge for each copy at the rate prescribed by section fifteen, except as otherwise provided.

Section 12. A deputy sheriff shall be allowed five dollars a day for attendance upon a meeting of the county commissioners by their order, and five cents a mile for travel out and home once a week during the attendance, to be paid by the county.

Section 13. Sheriffs and other officers shall be paid by the commonwealth, for serving precepts for the election of representatives in congress, fifty cents each, and for the service of subpoenas issued by order of the general court or either branch thereof the same fees as are a…

Section 14. The fees of sheriffs, deputy sheriffs and constables in proceedings under the provisions of chapter two hundred and twenty-four shall be as follows: For the service of the summons, or any other process, the fee for which is not otherwise provided by this section, for …

Section 15. The fee for copies of any process of more than one page shall be at the rate of fifty cents a page, except as provided in section eight.

Section 16. In the service of any process issued by the land court, the fees shall be one dollar for posting a copy on each parcel of land, and the same fees for copy, service and travel as are hereinbefore provided for the service of writs.

Section 17. In the service of an execution of ejectment the fees shall be: for demand, one dollar; for delivery, one dollar; for all necessary expenses, including packing, teaming and labor; and the officer may be allowed additional compensation by an order of the court from whic…

Section 18. An officer receiving fees for any official duty or service, who, upon request of the person paying them, refuses or neglects to make out in writing in his return a particular account of such fees, specifying for what they respectively accrued, shall forfeit to such pe…

Section 19. No fees for the service of any process of which the officer is required to make a return shall be allowed, unless itemized and endorsed on the process; and no allowance for the use of a conveyance in the service of a civil process shall be made, unless the officer cer…

Section 2. The fees of the clerks of the district and Boston municipal court departments of the trial court in civil actions, shall be as follows: For the entry of a complaint, third-party complaint, petition or other action, and for the filing of a motion to intervene as plainti…

Section 20. An officer shall not be allowed any fees for making a diligent search for any person named in a process, except the amount actually expended by him in making such search and stated in his return.

Section 21. In the service of precepts in criminal cases, the officer shall be allowed the actual, reasonable and necessary expenses incurred in going or returning with the prisoner, and if he necessarily uses his own conveyance, he shall be allowed therefor twenty cents a mile f…

Section 22. The fee for attending before a district court or trial justice shall be one dollar a day, upon one warrant only, if there are two or more against the same defendant at the same time. If the defendant in a criminal case is brought in by a summons, the fee for attendanc…

Section 23. The fees of magistrates for the examination of sureties and approval of bonds or for the taking of recognizances shall be in each case five dollars for the citation, if any, and the first day's hearing, and two dollars in addition for each adjournment thereof. These f…

Section 24. (a) The maximum fee to be charged by a person authorized to take bail or release on personal recognizance in the case of a person arrested for any misdemeanor or felony shall be $80. (b) The trial court shall be responsible for paying fees charged to take bail outside…

Section 25. The compensation of traverse jurors impanelled to try cases of murder in the first degree shall be sixteen dollars, and that of all other traverse jurors and of grand jurors fourteen dollars, for each day's service; provided, however, that jurors held under restraint …

Section 26. Officers who serve subpoenas or other processes in connection with inquests held by district courts shall be paid their fees and expenses by the commonwealth as in criminal cases, in the same manner as the fees of witnesses are paid in criminal cases in said courts.

Section 27. In cases against juvenile offenders, an officer who attends as a witness at a place other than that of his residence may be allowed by the court or justice his increased necessary expenses, not exceeding the witness fee before such court or justice, and the reasonable…

Section 29. The fees for attending as a witness before the general court, the supreme judicial court, the superior court, the land court, a probate court or court of insolvency, a district court, county commissioners, a trial justice, a referee, an arbitrator, the division of ind…

Section 3. A special justice, when not holding court shall be paid by the commonwealth two dollars for each summons or process issued by him, and for each application for a warrant entertained by him.

Section 30. A witness who is detained in jail under section forty-nine of chapter two hundred and seventy-six because of his inability to furnish sureties shall be allowed as a witness fee such sum as the court shall order, but not less than one dollar and fifty cents for each da…

Section 31. The court shall determine the compensation of private persons who perform service required by law, or in the execution of legal process, if no other provision is made therefor.

Section 32. District courts may allow reasonable compensation to interpreters for service rendered and to witnesses from without the commonwealth in criminal proceedings before them, which shall be paid by the commonwealth in the same manner as witness fees, and shall allow inter…

Section 33. All laws in relation to the payment of witness fees and to the payment of expenses of officers in criminal cases shall apply in cases arising under sections forty-two to sixty-four, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and nineteen.

Section 34. Unless otherwise established in a town by town meeting action and in a city by city council action; and in a town with no town meeting by town council action, by adoption of appropriate bylaws and ordinances to set such fees, the fees of city and town clerks shall be …

Section 35. The fee for lawfully solemnizing and certifying a marriage shall not exceed $100 if performed in the justice of the peace's home community or $150 if performed in any municipality in the commonwealth; provided, however, that no additional charge shall be made for trav…

Section 36. The fee for copies of any official papers or articles of organization certified by the state secretary shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven. The fee for the state secretary's certifi…

Section 37. Every person upon whose application an examination of records or papers is made by direction of the state secretary shall pay to the secretary therefor the actual expense thereof, and of copying the manuscript or record required; but any person whom the secretary cons…

Section 38. Except as otherwise provided, the fees of the registers of deeds to be paid when an instrument is recorded shall be as follows: For entering and recording any paper, certifying the same on the original, and indexing it and all other duties pertaining thereto, $50; pro…

Section 39. The fees payable under chapter one hundred and eighty-five shall be as follows: For the entry of every original petition, complaint or writ and transmitting it to the recorder, when filed with an assistant recorder, $240. For the entry of complaint to foreclose tax li…

Section 3A. The district court department shall impose a fee for child support collection services furnished under chapter two hundred and seventy-three, two hundred and seventy-three A or any other chapter in which an individual may be ordered to pay support on behalf of another…

Section 4. The fees of the clerks of the supreme judicial court for the commonwealth and for each of the counties and for the appeals court shall be as follows: for the entry of a complaint, petition, appeal or other action, $300; for the filing of an application for further appe…

Section 40. The fees of the registers of the probate and family court, shall be as follows: for the filing of an amended or substituted account, for a petition for the allowance of an account, $75; for the filing of an account, including a common trust fund account, if the gross …

Section 40A. The probate and family court department shall impose a fee for child support collection services furnished under chapter two hundred and eight, two hundred and nine or any other chapter in which an individual may be ordered to pay support on behalf of another. The am…

Section 41. The fees of notaries public shall be as follows: For the protest of a bill of exchange, order, draft or check for non-acceptance or non-payment, or of a promissory note for non-payment, if the amount thereof is five hundred dollars or more, one dollar; if it is less t…

Section 42. The fees of commissioners appointed under section four of chapter two hundred and twenty-two shall be as follows: For administering oaths and certifying the same under their official seals, one dollar for each; for taking acknowledgments of deeds and other instruments…

Section 43. The fees of public officers for any official duty or service shall, except as otherwise provided, be at the rate prescribed in this chapter for like services.

Section 44. The department of public utilities or the department of telecommunications and cable may charge a fee to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven for copies of official documents and orders re…

Section 44A. The fee for a certified copy of a birth, marriage or death record issued by the office of the commissioner of public health shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven; except that any per…

Section 45. A page, when used as the measure of computation, shall mean two hundred and twenty-four words.

Section 46. Each of the officers before mentioned shall always keep posted in a conspicuous and convenient place in his office a printed or written list of the fees prescribed in this chapter so far as they relate to him.

Section 46A. No fee for a copy of any record relating to the birth, death, marriage, divorce, adoption or change of name of any veteran, as defined in clause Forty-third of section seven of chapter four, or relating to any person a copy of whose like record is necessary to assist…

Section 47. No fees shall be allowed upon the return of an officer upon a precept in a criminal case, in which expenses are charged, unless every item of expense incurred and the name of the person to whom each amount was paid is set forth under oath in the return; and no item of…

Section 48. If more than one criminal process is served upon the same defendant on the same day, or if two or more prisoners are conveyed at one time by the same officer, by virtue of a mittimus, habeas corpus or state prison warrant, either on one process or on several processes…

Section 49. No fee shall be allowed to a trial justice for issuing more than one mittimus, nor to an officer for the service of more than one mittimus, in cases in which two or more persons are jointly convicted and sentenced to the same place of imprisonment; and, if the superio…

Section 4A. The fees of clerks of court of the superior court department of the trial court shall be as follows: for the entry in the superior court department of the trial court of a complaint, third-party complaint, petition or other action and for the filing of a motion to int…

Section 4B. The court administrator of the trial court, shall, subject to the approval of the supreme judicial court, establish and periodically revise a uniform schedule of fees to be charged by the various departments of the trial court for court documents and services which sh…

Section 4C. Any party entering a complaint, petition or other civil action in any court of the commonwealth, except small claims cases, in which an initial filing fee is payable, and to which a separate docket number is assigned shall pay to the clerk of said court a surcharge of…