Legal Question in Criminal Law in Massachusetts

Required to summons? Return date & time?

Dear Attorney,

Under Mass Law (MGL) are court officials or the prosecution required by law to summons or give notice of a return date and time to a defendant within a certain stuatory time-frame. Especially we they have multiple mailing address for the defendant:

ie: Defendant lives in another state, recieves a notice of complaint, does not appear at complaint hearing, but then recieves no summons though charges are formulated. Court system and police have good multiple mailing addresses for the defendant.

Thank you.


Asked on 2/23/06, 5:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Martha Kovner Law Offices of Martha J. Kovner

Re: Required to summons? Return date & time?

Was it notice of a complaint or notice of a hearing? If it was notice of a hearing and the defendant did not appear then the complaint would have most likely been issued and scheduled for an arraignment date and the defendant should have received notice of that date from the court. If it was notice of a complaint and the defendant did not appear then the defendant most likely missed the arraignment on the charges and a default was issued with a warrant issued for the person's arrest. There is no requirement that the Court notify the defendant that he or she is in default status. To determine what the status is one should call the courthouse and ask the clerk's office to look up the case to see what actually happened. Hope that this helps. Martha Kovner

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Answered on 2/23/06, 8:10 am


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