Judicial Committee Looking to Improve Summary Process

Judges know that technology could help make summary process (aka the eviction process) better for all concerned. Anyone who heard Housing Court Chief Justice Tim Sullivan at MassLandlords meetings in various parts of the Commonwealth over the past year or so will be aware that this is an issue close to his heart.

The Worcester Law Library hosted MassLandlords members for a special event on the Hatcher decision in September 2018, Chief Justice Sullivan shown speaking. The Law Library also hosted the June 5, 2019 Summary Process Stakeholder Meeting (no photograph available). The library stacks are open to the public.

So earlier this year the Trial Court set up an inter-departmental committee led by Judge Dina E. Fein (First Justice of the Western Division Housing Court) with the goal of simplifying and standardizing the eviction process and the forms.

The committee invited stakeholders from the landlords’ bar (including Attorney Peter Vickery from MassLandlords), the tenants’ bar, and the court system to sit down in Worcester on June 5 to discuss the work to date. At MassLandlords we are pleased to have been invited to participate, and we will let members know as and when the committee’s proposals take shape.