Administrative Regulation  District Court Administrative Regulation 5-75

Date:	10/01/2008
Organization:	District Court

Amended October 1, 2008

Promulgation of Standards of Judicial Practice, the Complaint Procedure

Administrative Regulation 5-75 is hereby amended as follows, effective October 1, 2008: 

The provisions of the Standards of Judicial Practice, The Complaint Procedure, as revised, are hereby promulgated for use in the District Court Department.

Hon. Lynda M. Connolly  
Chief Justice of the District Court

Note

Standards on The Complaint Procedure were first promulgated by my predecessor Chief Justice Franklin N. Flaschner in 1975. They were developed by the District Court Committee on Standards, consisting of Hon. Morris N. Gould (Worcester), Chair, Hon. Monte G. Basbas (Newton), Hon. Kevin R. Doyle (Waltham), Clerk-Magistrate John E. Flaherty (South Boston), Clerk Magistrate George H. W. Hayes II (Ipswich), Hon. George C. Keady, Jr. (Springfield), Hon. Daniel H. Rider (Dedham), Assistant Chief Probation Officer David F. Scott (Quincy), and Chief Probation Officer Joseph M. Souza (New Bedford).

In the years following their development, the Complaint Standards made a significant contribution in shaping practice and procedure in this unique area of District Court jurisdiction. At that time, there was little decisional law to offer guidance, and the Standards had significant influence in standardizing practices throughout the District Court. They have often guided and been cited in appellate decisions. 

During those same years the mechanics of complaint preparation in the pre-computer era were greatly simplified by the introduction of a standard Application for Complaint form and a multi-part Complaint form on which the charging language for multiple counts could be entered using a disk-driven memory typewriter. This permitted the introduction of a single multi-count complaint for each case rather than separate, pre-printed complaint forms for each count. In 1982 this system and its designer, Deputy Court Administrator Dennis J. Casey, were recognized with the National Center for State Courts’ Paul C. Reardon Award. Simultaneously, standardized charging language was introduced throughout the District Court. Today the Administrative Office of the District Court provides courts with uniform charging language for more than 5,000 offenses through the Trial Court’s MassCourts computer system. 

In recent years a number of significant appellate decisions and statutory and rules amendments have made a comprehensive revision of the Complaint Standards necessary. I am grateful to the Committee on Criminal Proceedings for undertaking this complex task. Thanks also to the Advisory Committee of Clerk-Magistrates for their review and suggestions, and to the many other clerks who commented on the revised standards in draft form. Special thanks are due former committee member Hon. Stephen S. Ostrach (Region 4), who initially outlined the legal changes in this area of law, and particularly to committee member Assistant Clerk-Magistrate James J. Foley (Quincy), who took the lead role in researching and drafting the necessary changes to the standards. 

Unlike rules of court, the Standards of Judicial Practice are not mandatory in application. They represent a qualitative judgment as to best practices in each of the various aspects of the Complaint procedure. As such, each court should strive for compliance with the Standards and should treat them as a statement of desirable practice to be departed from only with good cause. In addition, many references are made throughout the Standards to provisions of statutory and case law which, of course, must be observed. 

These Standards may be amended from time to time. Comments and suggestions on how they may be improved are always welcome and should be sent to the Administrative Office of the District Court, Two Center Plaza, Boston MA 02108.