Press Release  2024 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 2024 edition of the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence. Like the 2023 edition, the Guide is printed in a large 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.

“First published in 2008, the Guide has become an invaluable resource for attorneys, judges, and self-represented litigants,” said Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd. “In this most recent and sixteenth edition, the Advisory Committee has continued not only to provide updates on important Massachusetts state evidentiary developments from the past year, but also to significantly revise existing sections, such as Section 606 (Juror’s Competency as a Witness), to make them more accessible and useful for users. The Justices are grateful for the committee’s dedication to this important work.”

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 2024 Guide will be available for purchase from the Flaschner Judicial Institute and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

The 2024 edition of the Guide incorporates forty-one opinions issued by the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023, and a number of additional appellate court decisions that did not appear in prior editions.

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. Sarah Ellis and Hon. Hélène Kazanjian of the Superior Court; Hon. Barbara M. Hyland of the Probate and Family Court; Hon. Dana Gershengorn of the Juvenile Court; Hon. Lisa Ann Grant of the Boston Municipal Court; Hon. Sookyoung Shin of the Appeals Court; Supreme Judicial Court Executive Director and General Counsel Timothy E. Maguire; Boston College Law School Professor R. Michael Cassidy; attorney Edmund P. Daley III; New England Law | Boston Professor Benjamin K. Golden; Boston University School of Law Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose; Appeals Court law clerks Ramon E. Ledezma Maldonado and George E. Clarke; Hon. R. Marc Kantrowitz and  Hon. Peter W. Agnes (editors-in-chief emeritus); emeritus member Hon. David A. Lowy;  and consulting members Chief Justice of the Trial Court Heidi Brieger and Chief Justice of the Superior Court Michael D. Ricciuti.

###