Massachusetts Statutes

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…

Section 5. When clerks cause copies to be printed which they are required to furnish, they shall make no charge for such printed copies in excess of the amount actually paid for the printing thereof. They may require the estimated cost of said printing to be paid in advance, and …

Section 50. No officer in attendance on any court, sheriff, deputy sheriff, jailer, constable, city marshal or other police officer who receives a salary or an allowance by the day or hour from the commonwealth or from a county, city or town shall, except as otherwise hereinafter…

Section 51. The fees and expenses of officers, other than those named in section fifty, in a criminal case, shall be paid by the commonwealth.

Section 53. Any police officer on duty at night, on vacation, furlough or on a day off, who attends as a witness in a criminal case pending in a district court, including the municipal court of the city of Boston, or in a juvenile court, including Boston juvenile court, shall be …

Section 53A. Any police officer named in section fifty and section fifty-three who attends as a witness at a place other than his residence in a criminal case pending in a district court, including the municipal court of the city of Boston, or in a juvenile court, or in the super…

Section 53B. Any uniformed member of the department of state police, appointed under section ten of chapter twenty-two C, on duty at night, or on vacation or furlough, or on a day off, who attends as a witness in a civil or criminal suit pending in a district court or in a juveni…

Section 53C. Any police officer, including an officer of the department of state police appointed under section ten of chapter twenty-two C, on duty at night or on vacation, furlough or on a day off, who attends as a witness for the commonwealth in a criminal case pending in a di…

Section 55. Railroad police shall not be entitled to any fees for attendance upon a trial as witnesses for the commonwealth, but they may be allowed their necessary expenses therefor.

Section 56. Except as otherwise provided, an officer of the commonwealth whose salary is fixed by law, or any employee of the commonwealth receiving regular compensation therefrom shall not be entitled to a witness fee before any court in a cause in which the commonwealth is a pa…

Section 57. If it appears on oath that a salaried officer of the commonwealth has attended court as a witness in behalf of the commonwealth, at a place other than his residence, and that his necessary expenses have been increased by such attendance, the court may allow such incre…

Section 58. Whoever receives a witness fee or allowance for increased necessary expenses in violation of any provision of the three preceding sections shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars. Every clerk of a court shall report forthwith to the district a…

Section 59. If witnesses are in attendance in two or more criminal cases pending at the same time before the same court, they shall not be allowed full travel and attendance in each case, but the justice or clerk of the court may reduce and apportion the same, allowing at least o…

Section 6. When a judgment or decree is entered up, and upon inspection it appears that the record thereof or the record of the proceedings will be of unusual length, the court may order the prevailing party to pay such amount, in addition to the entry fee, as may be just and equ…

Section 60. If, on the trial of a criminal case, it appears that a witness has induced the defendant to commit the crime with which he is charged with intent to appear as a witness against him, the court or magistrate may in his discretion refuse to allow him his fees.

Section 61. A sheriff, deputy sheriff or other officer who takes the certificates of witnesses in criminal cases shall not purchase or discount or have any interest in orders drawn or demands upon the treasury by such witnesses.

Section 62. Whoever, with intent to defraud, signs or procures to be signed a certificate of attendance or travel as a witness before a court, or reference founded upon a rule of court, in any case in which the witness did not so attend, or for a greater number of days than he ac…

Section 63. If the administration of justice or the progress of business in criminal proceedings is delayed, obstructed or prevented by the negligence of a magistrate in certifying and returning recognizances, records or other official papers which it is his duty to transmit to a…

Section 64. If the court finds that a complaint in a criminal case is unfounded, frivolous or malicious, it may refuse to allow any fees to the complainant.

Section 7. Clerks of the courts shall collect all fees in advance.

Section 8. The fees of sheriffs, deputy sheriffs and constables shall be as follows: (a) for the service of civil process: (1) for service of an original summons, trustee process, subpoena or scire facias, either by reading it or by leaving a copy thereof, $20 for each defendant …

Section 8A. Each deputy sheriff and constable shall annually on or before the fifteenth day of April file with the county treasurer an account signed by him under the penalties of perjury of all fees and money received by him under the provisions of section eight for the service …

Section 9. If the person who delivers or forwards a process to an officer for service requests him to return it by mail or express, compensation shall not be allowed for more than twenty miles' travel in the service, unless the officer actually and necessarily travels more than t…