Press Release  2023 Edition of the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence Now Available

BOSTON, MA — The Supreme Judicial Court and its Advisory Committee on Massachusetts Evidence Law today announced the release of the 2023 edition of the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence. For this fifteenth anniversary edition, the print version of the Guide will appear in a larger format with a durable spiral binding, enabling readers to lay the book down flat for ease of use.

The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court recommend use of the Guide by the bench, bar, and public.

"I am grateful to the Advisory Committee members for their ongoing work and dedication to updating the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence each year," said Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd. "The Guide is an invaluable resource to attorneys, judges, and self-represented litigants. The 2023 edition reflects important legal developments and includes the addition of Section 1120, which compiles the law concerning courtroom demonstrations, experiments, and computer simulations.”

The Massachusetts Guide to Evidence assembles existing Massachusetts evidence law in an easy-to-use document organized similarly to the Federal Rules of Evidence. The Guide includes extensive explanatory notes and citations to pertinent authorities.

An electronic version of the Guide is available without charge on the court's website, where it can be searched and downloaded. The Official Print Edition is published by the Flaschner Judicial Institute, which is again providing a complimentary copy to every sitting judge in the Commonwealth. The 2023 Guide will be available for purchase from the Flaschner Judicial Institute and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

The 2023 edition of the Guide incorporates forty-five opinions issued by the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021, and an additional forty-three appellate court decisions that did not appear in prior editions. The fifteenth anniversary edition also includes substantial revisions of several sections to reflect the current state of the Massachusetts evidence law.

In 2006, the Supreme Judicial Court established the Advisory Committee to prepare a Massachusetts Guide to Evidence at the request of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Boston Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. Since 2008, the Supreme Judicial Court has appointed a standing Committee to monitor and incorporate new legal developments and produce annual new editions of the Guide.

Appeals Court Justice Gregory I. Massing chairs the Advisory Committee and serves as editor-in-chief of the Guide. The other members of the Advisory Committee are Hon. Mark S. Coven (editor), of the District Court; attorney Elizabeth N. Mulvey (editor); Hon. Michael D. Ricciuti and Hon. Sarah Ellis of the Superior Court; Hon. Barbara M. Hyland of the Probate and Family Court; Hon. Gloria Y. Tan of the Juvenile Court; Hon. Lisa Ann Grant of the Boston Municipal Court; Hon. Sookyoung Shin of the Appeals Court; Supreme Judicial Court Deputy Legal Counsel Timothy E. Maguire; Appeals Court research attorney Sean C. Connolly; Boston College Law School Professor R. Michael Cassidy; A-ttorney Edmund P. Daley III; New England Law | Boston Visiting Professor Benjamin K. Golden; Boston University School of Law Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose; Appeals Court law clerks Tyler Creighton and Ramon E. Ledezma Maldonado; Hon. R. Marc Kantrowitz and  Hon. Peter W. Agnes (editors-in-chief emeritus); and consulting members Supreme Judicial Court Justice David A. Lowy and Superior Court Chief Justice Heidi Brieger.

###