Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts

Re: Small Claims Appeal

Are you sure you'll be heard by a single justice? District Court (not small claims) cases are more often appealed to a single justice. That's unusual for a small claims case; the usual procedure is to go to a trial by jury (a six person jury) though what you say IS possible.

Unfortunately, it CAN be a different set of rules. If he hires a lawyer, you could be sunk because that lawyer might raise in front of the judge evidence objections and preclude you from showing certain evidence or telling certain parts of your story.

Rules of evidence are kind of tough. When something is inadmissable, it's like it doesn't exist. Documents often have to be certified by the person who created them, pictures have to be said to represent fairly what they portray by someone who has seen what they portray (not necessarily the photographer).

Hearsay is the trickiest: you simply cannot suggest that something is true because someone else told you it. Each witness may testify only to what he or she knows first hand and not to what someone else (other than the opposing party) told them. (Statements of the opposing party CAN be introduced.) "My aunt was home the day he came and ... " "OBJECTION!" (objection sustained)

You would have to have your Aunt in court that day to say what happened.

However, without a lawyer, a single justice will probably let a lot of those issues slide.

Most decisions are upheld upon appeal, but by no means all. In small claims cases especially, everyone involved is annoyed at the waste of time the defendant is causing and at that point the presumption is very strong that he's responsible and ought to continue to be held responsible. However, it is actually a new trial. I understand it is admissible that the judgment of the first magistrate was against him, something you'd want to mention in front of a jury, but you won't have to tell the Justice that, so don't. It speaks for itself.