Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XVII Chapter 123
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 123, § 18A (2026)

Facility residents; contribution towards cost of counsel

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 18A. A person who is a resident in a facility of the department of mental health or in the Bridgewater state hospital and who has funds held in trust for him by the department of mental health or the department of correction, shall contribute toward the cost of any counsel appointed pursuant to chapter two hundred and eleven D to provide representation in proceedings under this chapter, in an amount not exceeding five hundred dollars unless a larger contribution has been ordered by a court pursuant to sections two and five of chapter two hundred and eleven D. Whenever the department of correction or the department of mental health holds funds in trust for such a person, the department shall turn over such funds, but not exceeding five hundred dollars, to the treasurer to be credited toward the cost of providing such counsel.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1998–2012 · leading case: Commonwealth v. Laurore, 769 N.E.2d 725 (Mass. 2002).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Commonwealth v. Laurore, 769 N.E.2d 725 (Mass. 2002). “He found the defendant suicidal and depressed, and obtained the defendant’s commitment to Bridgewater State Hospital (Bridge-water) pursuant to G. L. c. 123, § 18A. The defendant remained at Bridgewater until December 29, 1995, when he was returned to the jail.”
Commonwealth v. Scionti, 962 N.E.2d 190 (Mass. App. Ct. 2012). “She added that there also were two other Bridgewater State Hospital commitments under G. L. c. 123, § 18A, once in 2003 “when he was thought to be fabricating symptoms of mental illness, and then again in February of 2006 when he was observed for three weeks without signs or…”
Commonwealth v. Crepeau, 693 N.E.2d 1000 (Mass. 1998). “During one 1987 evaluation, pursuant to G. L. c. 123, § 18A, the defendant, who had attempted suicide, reported that he had powerful feelings about attacking women sexually and that he had raped women in addition to the victim of the crime to which he had pleaded guilty.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.