Boston— For the first time, case docket and calendar information for the Massachusetts appellate courts is electronically available to the public on the Web.  This information can now be accessed directly at www.ma-appellatecourts.org or via links on the home pages of the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court on the Massachusetts court system website at www.mass.gov/courts. Information is posted daily in an effort to provide attorneys, litigants, and the public with easy access to up-to-date case docket and calendar information of appellate court cases.

            “Access to justice includes providing individuals with an expeditious, convenient manner to obtain case information.  Repeated trips to the courthouse or telephone calls to a clerk’s office are no longer required to obtain appellate case information, which is now readily available to those with web access by clicking onto the courts’ website,” said Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall.  “It is one way we are striving to make the courts easily accessible to all.”

            Cases scheduled for oral argument for both the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court are listed on the website, as well as case docketing information, which includes the status of a case. By entering the attorneys’ names, parties to the case, court, judge, or docket number on cases entered from January 1, 1992, in the Supreme Judicial Court and from January 1, 1988, in the Appeals Court, an individual can easily obtain the public case information.

            In keeping with the SJC Policy Concerning Publication of Court Case Information on the Web, promulgated in June 2003, the website does not furnish an individual’s address, telephone number, social security number, or date of birth, or information which directly identifies parties to an impounded or sealed case, or a case made non-public by statute or court rule.