Mass. Gen. Laws » Part III Title I Chapter 218
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 218, § 21 (2026)

Power to establish rules of small claims procedure; venue; jurisdictional amount; hearings; damages and penalties

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

Section 21. There shall be within the district court department and the Boston municipal court department a simple, informal and inexpensive procedure, hereinafter called the procedure, for the determination, according to the rules of substantive law, of claims in the nature of contract or tort, other than slander and libel, in which the plaintiff does not claim as debt or damages more than $7,000; provided, however, that a city or town may bring an action under section 35 of chapter 60 for the collection of unpaid taxes on personal property in any amount or any other action which shall not exceed $15,000; and provided further, that said dollar limitation shall not apply to an action for property damage caused by a motor vehicle, and for a review of judgments upon such claims when justice so requires. The procedure shall not be exclusive, but shall be alternative to the formal procedure for civil actions begun by summons and complaint.

The chief justice for the district court department shall make uniform rules with respect to the procedure applicable to all the courts within said department, and the chief justice for the Boston municipal court department shall make rules for the Boston municipal court department, all such rules being subject to the approval of the supreme judicial court.

Actions under this section and sections twenty-two to twenty-five inclusive, shall be brought, at the option of the plaintiff, in the judicial district where either the plaintiff or the defendant lives or has his usual place of business or employment; provided, however, that actions brought against a landlord or lessor of land or tenements rented for residential purposes, and arising out of such property or rental, may also be brought in the judicial district in which the property is located.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, each court within the district court department shall have civil jurisdiction of such actions commenced in such court which should have been brought in some other court, to the extent that the action may be heard and disposed of by the court in which it was begun, if the venue of said action is waived or, if venue requirements are not waived, the court may, on motion of any party, order the action, with all papers relating thereto, transferred for hearing and disposition to the court in which the action should have been commenced. Said action shall thereupon be entered and prosecuted in such court as if it had originally commenced therein, and all prior proceedings otherwise regularly taken shall thereafter be valid. An action may be commenced under this section if the initial amount of damages claimed is $7,000 or less or is an action by a city or town under said section 35 of said chapter 60 for the collection of unpaid taxes on personal property in any amount or any other action by a city or town which shall not exceed $15,000 or an action for property damage caused by a motor vehicle regardless of the amount of the claims notwithstanding that the court may award double or treble damages in accordance with the provisions of any general or special law.

Actions brought under sections twenty-one to twenty-five, inclusive, may be heard in the first instance by a clerk-magistrate of the district court department or the Boston municipal court department. For the purpose of hearing such property damage claims caused by a motor vehicle the procedure established shall provide for all such claims to be heard on one evening every other week, and on one Saturday on the alternative week, unless otherwise agreed to by all parties in such actions in accordance with the provisions of section thirty-four O of chapter ninety.

In the hearing and disposition of any claim for money damages within the jurisdiction of such procedure, the Boston municipal and district court departments shall have all equity powers and jurisdiction conferred by sections one, one A and two, and clause (1) of section three of chapter two hundred and fourteen.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 41 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 1924–2023 · leading case: Travis v. McDonald, 490 N.E.2d 1169 (Mass. 1986).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Travis v. McDonald, 490 N.E.2d 1169 (Mass. 1986). · cites it 5× “93A claim under G. L. c. 218, § 21 (1984 ed.). A Superior Court judge ruled that the small claims session does have jurisdiction to hearG.”
Cousineau v. Laramee, 448 N.E.2d 756 (Mass. 1983). · cites it 2× “G. L. c. 218, § 21, as amended by St. 1982, c.”
Boat Maint. & Repair Co. v. Lawson, 737 N.E.2d 494 (Mass. App. Ct. 2000). · cites it 4× “Lawson filed an answer 1 in which he denied Macolini’s claim, and set forth a counterclaim of $10,000, well above the $2,000 jurisdictional amount set for small claims in G. L. c. 218, § 21. The matter came on for hearing before the clerk-magistrate of the court on December 4,…”
State Bd. of Ret. v. Bulger, 843 N.E.2d 603 (Mass. 2006). “221, § 62C; G. L. c. 218, §§ 21, 22, 33, 35A; G. L. c.”
Brown v. Chicopee Fire Fighters Ass'n, Local 1710, 562 N.E.2d 87 (Mass. 1990). · cites it 2× “On June 9, 1989, Brown filed a claim against the appellee, Chicopee Fire Fighters Association, Local 1710, IAFF (local), in the small claims court pursuant to G. L. c. 218, § 21 (1988 ed.). After hearing, the small claims court awarded Brown a judgment of $1,389.”
First Just. of the Bristol Div. of the Juv. Court Dep't v. Clerk-magistrate of the Bristol Div. of the Juv. Court Dep't, 438 Mass. 387 (Mass. 2003). “221, § 62C; G. L. c. 218, §§ 21, 22, 33, 35A; G. L. c.”
Carter v. Lynn Hous. Auth., 880 N.E.2d 778 (Mass. 2008). “00 actual damages, reduced to the statutory maximum of $2,000, under the Small Claims Law, G. L. c. 218 § 21; the magistrate awarded $1,400.”
Slaney v. Westwood Auto, Inc., 322 N.E.2d 768 (Mass. 1975). “G. L. c. 218, § 21, as amended by St. 1971, c.”
LAS Collection Mgmt. v. Pagan, 858 N.E.2d 273 (Mass. 2006). “The exception to this rule is the small claims procedure, G. L. c. 218, § 21. See Varney Enters., Inc.”
Herman v. Home Depot, 763 N.E.2d 512 (Mass. 2002). “” The plaintiff sought die limit in small claim damages, $2,000, see G. L. c. 218, § 21, and court costs, see Rule 7 (e) of the Uniform Small Claims Rules (2001).”
Varney Enter., Inc. v. WMF, INC., 520 N.E.2d 1312 (Mass. 1988). “See G. L. c. 218, § 21 (1986 ed.). WMF, Inc., counterclaimed for $1,640.”
Hampshire Vill. Assocs. v. Dist. Court of Hampshire, 408 N.E.2d 830 (Mass. 1980). “See G. L. c. 218, § 21, next-to-last sentence.”
Show all 41 citing cases →
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.