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Massachusetts Legal Research - Finding case law on Lexis

Finding Massachusetts State Court Records and Briefs

In General
State court records and briefs usually have a limited distribution. Documents submitted in a case are often kept at the courthouse or a record center and some local libraries in the area may have a collection of Massachusetts records and briefs. Contacting the clerk’s office of the court in which the proceedings occurred or contacting a holding library in the area may be the best ways of locating materials. Whiteman & Campbell’s A Union List of Appellate Court Records and Briefs: Federal and State (1999) provides information about court clerks and libraries as well as notes indicating each library’s holdings and lending policy. If possible, note the docket number of the case you are interested in as records and briefs are often filed by the docket number the case obtained in that court.

There are several useful guides about locating Massachusetts court records. For a detailed guide about historic and current records and briefs, please see Menand’s A Research Guide to the Massachusetts Courts and their Records.

Some states, such as Massachusetts, are attempting to provide more docket information online. Please click on the following link for more information about electronic access to Massachusetts records and briefs.

Harvard’s Holdings
Harvard has a collection of Massachusetts Records and Briefs of the Supreme Judicial Court available in microform in drawers 997 – 1008 of the microfiche room. The records and briefs are organized by Massachusetts Reports volume then arranged alphabetically by case title.

Harvard also hold a microform collection of Appeals Court briefs as arranged in AC Records and Briefs available in the microform room in drawers 1011-1016. Documents are organized by Massachusetts Appeals Court Reports volume.

Citing Records and Briefs
Bluebook rule 10.1 provides information about citing records and briefs. See e.g. Brief for Appellant at 7, Smith v. Jones, 123 N.E.3d 45 (1999)(No. 99-432).