reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
MA Gen L ch 218 § 19d (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 19d - Housing Specialists; Appointment; Knowledge Requisites; Powers and Duties

Section 19D. The first justice of a district court may appoint, subject to appropriation, and subject to the approval of the chief justice of the district court department, such number of housing specialists as the first justice of said department may from time to time determine. The first justice may designate one of them as chief housing specialist for the court. All housing specialists shall hold office at the pleasure of the first justice of the district court, subject, however, to retirement under the provisions of any applicable general or special law relative to retirement systems. All housing specialists shall be knowledgeable in the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation of dwelling units; the problems of landlord and tenant as they pertain to dwelling units; the types of funds and services available to assist landlords and tenants in the financing and resolution of such problems; the federal and state laws, rules and regulations pertaining to the maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of such units; and the financing and resolution of such problems. The housing specialists shall have such powers and perform such duties as the first justice of the district court shall from time to time prescribe with regard to actions pending before the court under chapter two hundred and thirty-nine. Every housing specialist shall be sworn by the first justice of the district court, who shall, upon administering the oath, forthwith make return of such act with the date thereof to the state secretary.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 20 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 20 - Actions Against Executors and Administrators, and Against Bail

Section 20. District courts shall also have jurisdiction of civil actions against executors and administrators under section ten of chapter two hundred and thirty, and shall further have jurisdiction of civil actions against bail taken in a civil action in the district courts.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 22 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 22 - Procedure

Section 22. The procedure shall include the beginning of actions with an entry fee of $20 for claims of $500 for less and $30 for claims of greater than $500, plus the surcharge required by section four C of chapter two hundred and sixty-two, but without summons and complaint and without requirement, except by special order of court, of any pleading other than a concise written statement of the claim. The procedure shall include notice by first class mail instead of the mode of service heretofore required, and shall include provisions for early hearing. The procedure may include the modification of any or all rules of pleading and practice, anything contained in other chapters, sections or acts notwithstanding, and may include a stay of the entry of judgment or of the issue of execution and authority in the court, in its discretion, after proper inquiry, to order payment to the prevailing party of the amount found due on or before a day stated or by instalments, to modify, extend or vacate such order and, in its discretion, to enforce such order by contempt proceedings, substantially in the manner provided in chapter two hundred and twenty-four, and to provide therefor in the rules for the procedure. Said rules for the procedure may provide for the elimination of any or all fees and costs, and that costs shall be in the discretion of the court. In causes begun under the procedure, the court may on application for cause shown issue writs of attachment of property.  At the commencement of an action under the procedure the plaintiff shall be informed that such action may be submitted for mediation and resolution at the request of either party and with the agreement of both parties. The clerk-magistrate shall make appropriate note of any agreement so reached, and entry of judgment shall be made by the court. Any action which is not resolved by agreement may, at the request of any party, be heard by a clerk-magistrate under the provisions of sections twenty-one to twenty-five, inclusive; provided, however, that cases heard before a jury of six must be heard by a justice.  The procedure shall include the beginning of actions with an entry fee of $30 for claims of $500 or less, $40 for claims of greater than $500 but less than or equal to $2000, $90 for claims of greater than $2000 but less than or equal to $5000, and $140 for claims greater than $5000, plus the surcharge required by section four C of chapter two hundred and sixty-two, but without summons and complaint and without requirement, except by special order of court, of any pleading other than a concise written statement of the claim.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 24 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 24 - Transfer to Regular Docket

Section 24. The court may, in its discretion, transfer a cause begun under the procedure to the regular civil docket for formal hearing and determination as though it had been begun by summons and complaint, and may impose terms upon such transfer.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 25 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 25 - Costs; Discretion of Court

Section 25. In any civil action begun by summons and complaint which might have been begun under the procedure, the rules for the procedure may provide, or the court may by special order direct, that the cost to be recovered by the plaintiff, if he prevails, shall be eliminated in whole or in part.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 26 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 26 - General Provisions

Section 26. The district courts and divisions of the Boston municipal court department shall have original jurisdiction, concurrent with the superior court, of the following offenses, complaint of which shall be brought in the court of the district court department, or in the Boston municipal court department, as the case may be, within which judicial district the offense was allegedly committed or is otherwise made punishable:— all violations of by-laws, orders, ordinances, rules and regulations, made by cities, towns and public officers, all misdemeanors, except libels, all felonies punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than five-years, the crimes listed in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of section eight of chapter ninety B, subparagraph (1) of paragraph (a) of subdivision (1) of section twenty-four, paragraph (a) of section twenty-four G and paragraph (1) of section twenty-four L of chapter ninety, paragraph (a) of section thirty-two and paragraph (a) of section thirty-two A of chapter ninety-four C, and section thirty-two J of chapter ninety-four C, section 38B of chapter 127, section one hundred and thirty-one E of chapter one hundred and forty, sections thirteen K, 15A, 15D, 21A and 26 of chapter two hundred and sixty-five and sections sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-eight, thirty, forty-nine and one hundred and twenty-seven of chapter two hundred and sixty-six, and sections one, fifteen and fifteen A of chapter two hundred and seventy-three, and the crimes of malicious destruction of personal property under section one hundred and twenty-seven of chapter two hundred and sixty-six, indecent assault and battery on a child under fourteen years of age, offenses under section 13B of chapter 268, conspiracy under section 7 of chapter 274, solicitation to commit a felony under section 8 of said chapter 274, escape or attempt to escape from any penal institution, forgery of a promissory note, or of an order for money or other property, and of uttering as true such a forged note or order, knowing the same to be forged. They shall have jurisdiction of proceedings referred to them under the provisions of section four A of chapter two hundred and eleven.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 27 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 27 - Imposition of Penalties

Section 27. The district court may impose the same penalties as the superior court for all crimes of which they have jurisdiction, except that they may not impose a sentence to the state prison; provided, however, that the divisions of the juvenile court department shall have the authority to hear cases and impose penalties in accordance with the provisions of sections fifty-two through eighty-four of chapter one hundred and nineteen, and section one through nineteen of chapter one hundred and twenty.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 28 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 28 - Recognizances to Keep Peace

Section 28. District courts may require persons found guilty of any crime within their final jurisdiction, except a violation of by-laws, orders, ordinances, rules and regulations, made by cities, towns and public officers, or of the laws and regulations relative to the public health or relative to defective highways, in addition to the punishment prescribed by law, to recognize with sureties, in a reasonable sum, to keep the peace or be of good behavior, or both, for not more than one year, and to stand committed until they so recognize. Sections thirteen, sixteen and seventeen of chapter two hundred and seventy-five shall apply to recognizances so taken.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 30 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 30 - Binding Over to Superior Court

Section 30. They shall commit or bind over for trial in the superior court persons brought before them who appear to be guilty of crimes not within their final jurisdiction, and may so commit or bind over persons brought before them who appear to be guilty of crimes within their final jurisdiction. If such a person is committed for failure to recognize as ordered, the superior court shall thereupon have jurisdiction of the case against such person for the purpose of revising the amount of bail theretofore fixed.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 32 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 32 - Complaints and Warrants

Section 32. District courts may receive complaints and issue warrants and other processes for the apprehension of persons charged with crime and found within their county, or who after committing crime therein escape therefrom, returnable before a court of the county having jurisdiction of the trial or examination of the person charged with the crime.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 32a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 32a - Inclusion of Offense-Based Tracking Number on Application for Complaint

Section 32A. An application for a criminal complaint submitted to the district court by a police department against a person arrested for a felony offense shall be accompanied by an offense-based tracking number. An otherwise valid application for a complaint submitted by a police department against a person arrested shall not preclude the issuance of a complaint merely because the application does not include an arrestee's offense-based tracking number. If a complaint is issued based on an application for a complaint submitted by a police department against a person arrested for a felony that did not include the arrestee's offense-based tracking number, the prosecutor shall submit the offense-based tracking number of the defendant to the court to be included in the case file.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 33 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 33 - Warrants and Process; Power of Clerks to Issue

Section 33. A clerk, assistant clerk, temporary clerk or temporary assistant clerk, may receive complaints, administer to complainants the oath required thereto, and issue warrants, search warrants and summonses, returnable as required when such process are issued by said courts. No other person, except a judge, shall be authorized to issue warrants, search warrants or summonses.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 34 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 34 - Arrest Without Warrant; Endorsement of Complaint by Arresting Officer

Section 34. Said courts may dispense with the issuing of a warrant if the person charged with a crime has been arrested without a warrant and brought before the court or admitted to bail; but in such case the officer making the arrest shall endorse upon the complaint a statement of his doings.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 35 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 35 - Complaints, Warrants and Process; Power to Issue; Disqualification to Hear Case; Destruction of Applications for Complaints

Section 35. A justice or special justice of a district court, or a justice of the peace who is also a clerk or assistant clerk of such a court, may at any time receive complaints and issue warrants and summonses, under his own hand and seal, and such justice or special justice may likewise issue search warrants, returnable before a court or trial justice having jurisdiction of the trial or examination of the person charged with the crime. If, after a hearing on the issuance of a complaint or a request for a search warrant, by a justice or special justice of a district court he issues such complaint or warrant, he shall be disqualified from presiding over a trial on the merits of any matter brought to trial because of such complaint or warrant if the defendant objects to his sitting before any evidence is taken.  If such an application for the issuance of a complaint is denied, the clerk of the district court wherein such application was made shall destroy such application one year after the date such application was filed, unless a justice of such court or the chief justice of the district courts shall for good cause order that such application be retained on file for a further period of time. The clerk shall enter on the face of any application so denied a conspicuous notation to that effect, and such applications shall be maintained separately from other records of such court. The provisions of this paragraph relating to the destruction of such applications shall not apply to applications filed pursuant to section twenty C of chapter ninety.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 35a (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 35a - Process; Issuance on Complaints for Misdemeanors; Consideration of Criminal Records and Domestic Violence Records; Right to Hearing

Section 35A. If a complaint is received by a district court, or by a justice, associate justice or special justice thereof, or by a clerk, assistant clerk, temporary clerk or temporary assistant clerk thereof under section 32, 33 or 35, as the case may be, the person against whom such complaint is made, if not under arrest for the offense for which the complaint is made, shall, in the case of a complaint for a misdemeanor or a complaint for a felony received from a law enforcement officer who so requests, and may, in the discretion of any said officers in the case of a complaint for a felony which is not received from a law enforcement officer, be given an opportunity to be heard personally or by counsel in opposition to the issuance of any process based on such complaint unless there is an imminent threat of bodily injury, of the commission of a crime, or of flight from the commonwealth by the person against whom such complaint is made. The court or said officers referred to above shall consider the named defendant's criminal record and the records contained within the statewide domestic violence record keeping system maintained by the office of the commissioner of probation in determining whether an imminent threat of bodily injury exists. Unless a citation as defined in section 1 of chapter 90C has been issued, notice shall also be given of the manner in which he may be heard in opposition as provided herein.  The court, or said officer thereof, may upon consideration of the evidence, obtained by hearing or otherwise, cause process to be issued unless there is no probable cause to believe that the person who is the object of the complaint has committed the offense charged.  The term district court as used in this section shall include the Boston municipal court department and the juvenile court department.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 36 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 36 - Justice of Peace; Taking Bail

Section 36. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, may from time to time, upon the petition of the aldermen or the selectmen of any town within the judicial district of a district court, except a town in which the clerk of such court resides, designate and commission a justice of the peace residing in such town to take bail in criminal cases arising within said judicial district.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 37 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 37 - Process for Witnesses and Defendants in Criminal and Juvenile Cases; Direction and Service

Section 37. District courts, justices, special justices, clerks, assistant clerks, temporary clerks and temporary assistant clerks thereof may issue summonses and other processes for witnesses in criminal cases, and at all hearings upon applications for complaints wherein a person may be charged with the commission of a crime, and such processes and likewise warrants and other processes in such cases, issued by said courts or persons, may be directed to a court officer or probation officer of the court issuing the process, or either specifically or in general terms to any person in the commonwealth qualified to serve criminal process, and any such process may be served and executed in any part of the commonwealth by the person to whom it is delivered for that purpose. This section shall apply to summonses, warrants and other processes for parties and witnesses in cases of wayward, delinquent or neglected children.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 38 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 38 - Access to Courts; Sittings; Adjournments; Filing of Complaints

Section 38. District courts and Boston municipal court divisions shall always be open and business may be transacted at any time, except as provided in section six of chapter two hundred and twenty. Sittings of the courts shall be held in the courthouses or other places provided therefor by the judicial branch, at the times and in the towns fixed by law; but if the times are not fixed by law, they shall be prescribed as provided in section fifteen. Sittings may be adjourned from time to time as occasion requires, and cases, civil or criminal, may be continued to any future day fixed for the sitting of the court. Subject to any other provisions of law relative to the filing of complaints for particular crimes, district courts and Boston municipal court divisions may place on file any complaint in a criminal case other than a complaint for the commission of a felony issued against a person who appears previously to have been convicted of a felony or previously to have had a complaint for felony placed on file.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 39 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 39 - Books and Supplies

Section 39. Justices and clerks of district courts, except the central division of the Boston municipal court department, may procure all law books relating to the laws of the commonwealth, including the reports of the supreme judicial court, the Massachusetts digests, all blank books, blanks, stationery and other incidentals required by said courts and approved by the justices. The clerk of a district court in any county other than Suffolk, the judicial district of which has a population exceeding one hundred and twenty thousand as ascertained by the last preceding national census and in which there is no county law library, may, with the approval of the chief justice, procure other law books required by said court. The expenses thereof shall be certified by the justices or clerks monthly, and shall be transmitted to the state treasurer for payment.
MA Gen L ch 218 § 40 (2021)
2021 Massachusetts General Laws|Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases|Title I - Courts and Judicial Officers|Chapter 218 - District Courts|Section 40 - Part-Time Special Justices; Authorized Cases

Section 40. A special justice of a district court who does not serve full-time in accordance with the provisions of section six A shall sit on the Boston municipal court department by assignment in the same manner as if he were serving full-time. When such a special justice, who is part-time, so-called, holds court, or a session thereof or an inquest, or certifies a bill of costs to the treasurer of the commonwealth, that fact, and the fact which gave him jurisdiction, shall be entered upon the general records of the court, but need not be stated in the record of any case heard by him.  Except in the central division of the Boston municipal court department, the district court of Dukes county and the district court of Nantucket, no justice or special justice who does not serve full-time shall hear and determine any civil cases other than supplementary proceedings, summary process, small claims, and proceedings relating to juveniles and mentally ill persons in any district court without the authorization of the chief justice of the district courts. The chief justice of the district courts shall give such authorization for specified limited periods of time in specified district courts and only as the public convenience may require, and may give such authorization by general rule applicable to the hearing and determination of interlocutory proceedings, or whenever full-time justices or special justices assigned to hear such civil cases, who serve full-time in accordance with the provisions of section six A, are absent or otherwise unable to sit. No such authorization shall be required for the rehearing of matters of law arising in civil causes by any justice assigned to the appellate division of a district court.