Massachusetts Statutes

Section 79E. If any business, institution, member of a profession or calling, or any department or agency of government, in the regular course of business or activity, has kept or recorded any memorandum, writing entry, print, representation or combination thereof of any act, tra…

Section 79F. A certificate by the secretary of the public works commission in the case of a state highway, or the secretary of the metropolitan district commission in the case of a highway under the control of said commission, or by a city or town clerk in the case of a city or t…

Section 79G. In any proceeding commenced in any court, commission or agency, an itemized bill and reports, including hospital medical records, relating to medical, dental, hospital services, prescriptions, or orthopedic appliances rendered to or prescribed for a person injured, o…

Section 79H. In an action of tort for personal injuries or death, or for consequential damages arising from such personal injuries, the medical report of a deceased physician who attended or examined the plaintiff, including expressions of medical opinion, shall, at the discretio…

Section 79I. In an action to recover from an insurer under a policy which provides coverage for theft of personal articles from a motor vehicle or trailer if all windows and doors are locked and if there are visible signs of forcible entry into the vehicle or trailer, the fact th…

Section 79J. A record kept by any business which is required to be produced in court by any party shall be certified by the affidavit of the person in custody thereof to be a true and complete record and shall be delivered by such business to the clerk of such court who shall kee…

Section 79K. A duplicate of a computer data file or program file shall be admissible in evidence as the original itself unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original or (2) in the circumstances it would be unfair to admit the duplicate in lieu of …

Section 79L. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Facility'', a hospital, clinic, or nursing home licensed under chapter 111, a psychiatric facility licensed under chapter 19 or a hom…

Section 8. Witnesses may be summoned to attend and testify and to produce books and papers at a hearing before a city council, or either branch thereof, or before a joint or special committee of the same or of either branch thereof, or before a board of selectmen, a board of poli…

Section 80. Transcripts from stenographic notes duly taken under authority of law in any court proceeding by a stenographer duly appointed for the purpose and sworn, when verified by the certificate of such stenographer, shall be admissible as evidence of testimony given whenever…

Section 81. (a) An out-of-court statement of a child under the age of ten describing an act of sexual contact performed on or with the child, the circumstances under which it occurred, or which identifies the perpetrator shall be admissible as substantive evidence in any criminal…

Section 82. (a) The out-of-court statements of a child under the age of ten describing any act of sexual contact performed on or with the child, the circumstances under which it occurred, or which identifies the perpetrator shall be admissible as substantive evidence in any civil…

Section 83. (a) Any out-of-court statements of a child under the age of ten describing any act of sexual contact performed on or with the child, the circumstances under which it occurred, or which identifies the perpetrator offered in an action brought under subparagraph C of sec…

Section 9. If a witness who has been so summoned and paid or tendered the proper fees fails to attend in pursuance thereof, the presiding officer of such city council, or of either branch thereof, or the chairman of such committee, board or commission, or any such commissioner, m…

Section 1. This chapter shall apply in every county in the commonwealth which has been designated as a participating county as hereinafter provided. Middlesex county shall be a participating county as of the effective date of this chapter. The supreme judicial court shall designa…

Section 10. On or before the first day of June of each year, each city and town shall make a sequentially numbered list of the names, addresses, and dates of birth of all persons who were seventeen years of age or older as of the first day of January of the current year and who r…

Section 11. On or before the first day of June of each year, each city and town having twenty thousand or more residents on its numbered resident list shall submit to the office of jury commissioner an automated copy of such list. Such automated copy, hereinafter in this chapter …

Section 12. On or before the first day of July of each year, the office of jury commissioner shall determine the number of prospective jurors to be drawn from each city and town. This number shall be as nearly as possible equal to the ratio of the population of the city or town t…

Section 13. On or before the first day of September of each year, the office of the jury commissioner shall randomly select prospective jurors for each city and town from the corresponding numbered resident list or numbered resident file. Each such numbered resident, so identifie…

Section 14. On or before the first day of August of each year, each city and town that has not submitted a numbered resident file pursuant to section eleven of this chapter shall submit to the office of jury commissioner a typewritten list of the randomly selected prospective jur…

Section 15. On or before the first day of September of each year, the office of jury commissioner shall prepare the prospective juror list for each city and town. Each list shall contain the names, addresses, dates of birth, and related information for all randomly selected prosp…

Section 16. On or before the first day of October of each year, the office of jury commissioner shall prepare the master juror list for each judicial district. The master juror list for a judicial district shall contain the aggregate of all prospective juror lists of cities and t…

Section 17. At least twelve weeks prior to the time when the services of grand or trial jurors are required, the clerk of each court requiring such jurors shall send or deliver a letter of venire to the office of jury commissioner. The letter of venire shall state the number of j…

Section 18. At least twelve weeks prior to the commencement of any term of grand or trial juror service, the jury commissioner shall determine, as a matter of discretion, the numbers of jurors to be summoned from each judicial district for grand and trial juror service. In making…

Section 19. At least twelve weeks prior to the commencement of any term of grand or trial juror service, the office of jury commissioner shall summon by first-class mail, grand and trial jurors from the corresponding master juror list to appear for juror service within each judic…

Section 2. The judicial districts for purposes of this chapter shall be the counties unless modified by the supreme judicial court. The supreme judicial court may, by rule of court, define judicial districts for purposes of this chapter which differ in geographical area and popul…

Section 20. The office of jury commissioner shall provide a notice of qualifications for juror service to each juror summoned under the provisions of this chapter. A summary of section four of this chapter shall be included in the said notice. This notice shall contain any furthe…

Section 21. Enclosed with a juror summons shall be a juror confirmation form; provided, however, that no juror confirmation form shall be enclosed with a postcard summons. When completed by the juror, this form shall certify whether or not the juror is qualified to serve as a tri…

Section 22. The office of jury commissioner shall provide a confidential juror questionnaire to each prospective juror. The information elicited by the questionnaire shall be such information as is ordinarily raised in voir dire examinations of jurors, including the juror's name,…

Section 23. Unless the court orders otherwise, the clerk of court or an assistant clerk shall provide copies of the appropriate completed questionnaires to the trial judge and counsel for use during voir dire. Except for disclosures made during voir dire or unless the court order…

Section 24. (a) Each grand and trial juror shall respond to the postcard summons within 10 days of receipt. The office of jury commissioner shall provide a means for the juror to respond. If the juror is unable to complete and sign the response, the juror may authorize another pe…

Section 25. Each grand and trial juror from whom the office of jury commissioner has not received a response to the juror summons by the eighth week preceding the term of service for which the juror was summoned shall be summoned a final time. The final summons shall have the sam…

Section 26. (a) Not later than the sixth week preceding any term of grand or trial juror service, the office of jury commissioner may summon additional grand or trial jurors, in the manner provided in sections 19 and 24, if it appears from the responses to the juror summonses tha…

Section 27. The office of jury commissioner may summon additional grand and trial jurors to appear for juror service forthwith or at a time certain, with or without the right of postponement of juror service, with or without the opportunity to change the selection of the courthou…

Section 27A. After a summons has been received by a juror, no person shall, except as otherwise provided by law, question any juror so summoned for the purpose of obtaining information as to the juror's background in connection with the juror's jury duty.

Section 28. The office of jury commissioner may cancel grand or trial juror service whenever it appears that the number of jurors scheduled to appear is in excess of the number reasonably required to conduct the business of the court without delay. The office of jury commissioner…

Section 29. The office of jury commissioner may modify the date, location, or other condition of grand or trial juror service in order to meet the urgent needs of the court. The office of jury commissioner shall employ whatever means of notice, including telephone notice, that is…

Section 3. Juror service in the participating counties shall be a duty which every person who qualifies under this chapter shall perform when selected. All persons selected for juror service on grand and trial juries shall be selected at random from the population of the judicial…

Section 30. The office of jury commissioner or the court may impose a standby status condition on any trial or grand juror before or during his term of service. A juror on whom such condition has been imposed shall be referred to as a standby juror. The standby juror shall be pre…

Section 30A. If, by challenge or otherwise, a sufficient number of jurors duly drawn and summoned cannot be obtained for the trial of a case, the court shall cause jurors to be returned from the bystanders or from the county at large, to complete the panel, if there are on the ju…

Section 31. On the first day of his term of grand or trial juror service, each juror shall bring to court and present to the officer in charge of jurors his summons, his confidential juror questionnaire, duly completed and signed, and any subsequent notices of postponement or loc…

Section 32. Any juror or other person who wilfully misrepresents a material fact in the confidential questionnaire for the purpose of either avoiding or securing service as a grand or trial juror shall be guilty of a crime, and, upon conviction, may be punished by a fine of not m…

Section 33. The court, the office of jury commissioner, and the clerk of court or assistant clerk shall have authority to inquire into the criminal history records of grand and trial jurors for the limited purpose of corroborating and determining their qualifications for juror se…

Section 34. A trial juror shall have the right to one postponement of his term of juror service for not more than one year. The trial juror shall exercise this right by responding to the juror summons and indicating an election to postpone. The month, day and year to which such s…

Section 35. Grand and trial jurors shall be summoned at random from the entire judicial district to perform juror service at any particular location within the judicial district, unless the supreme judicial court, by rule of court, orders otherwise. The office of jury commissione…

Section 36. Not later than two weeks after the receipt of a response to a juror summons containing an election to postpone or a request to transfer juror service to a different location, the office of jury commissioner shall provide notice to the juror. This notice shall state th…