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

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 218, § 38 (2026)

Access to courts; sittings; adjournments; filing of complaints

✓ current as of July 2026
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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.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1922–2005 · leading case: Commonwealth v. Mandile, 443 N.E.2d 1333 (Mass. App. Ct. 1983).
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Commonwealth v. Mandile, 443 N.E.2d 1333 (Mass. App. Ct. 1983). “45(c) and 6(c) (rescinded, effective July 1, 1966), and Advisory Committee Report, 5 F.”
Commonwealth v. Simmons, 838 N.E.2d 1257 (Mass. App. Ct. 2005). “” G. L. c. 218, § 38. Papers or records “which shall have been disposed of by being placed on file, as provided in section thirty-eight of chapter two hundred and eighteen, and shall have remained on file for more than twenty years,” may be disposed of as obsolete.”
Gabis, 134 N.E. 267 (Mass. 1922). “G. L. c. 218, § 38. See Ex parte United States, 242 U.”
King v. Commonwealth, 246 Mass. 57 (Mass. 1923). “” The power of placing on file complaints in criminal cases is conferred on district courts by G. L. c. 218, § 38. See also G. L. c. 218, § 31.”
Finer v. Commonwealth, 146 N.E. 23 (Mass. 1925). “431, G. L. c. 218, § 38, does not affect the pertinency to the case at bar of the general principle here declared.”
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