Filings Week Ending 2021 September 25

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-09-19 Search Period End: 2021-09-25 Earliest Case: 2021-09-20 Latest Case: 2021-09-24 Total Cases: 507 Total Transfers: 11 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 28.0% Of those, percentage pro se: 43.7% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Gardner Least stable with 10+ filings: Gardner Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Bristol Cases per day: 84 Housing crisis baseline max cases per day (UCL): 130 Housing crisis baseline min cases per day (LCL): 44 The number of filings this period is not statistically different from the pre-pandemic housing crisis baseline. -- Courts (n) Count Percent central 111 21.9% northeast 85 16.8% western 75 14.8% southeast 70 13.8% metro_south 56 11.0% eastern 46 9.1% fall river district 9 1.8% quincy district 9 1.8% attleboro district 5 1.0% malden district 5 1.0% bmc east boston 4 0.8% woburn district 4 0.8% lawrence district 3 0.6% lynn district 3 0.6% ayer district 2 0.4% cambridge district 2 0.4% framingham district 2 0.4% haverhill district 2 0.4% orleans district 2 0.4% bmc central 1 0.2% concord district 1 0.2% edgartown district 1 0.2% lowell district 1 0.2% nantucket district 1 0.2% new bedford district 1 0.2% northern berkshire district 1 0.2% peabody district 1 0.2% somerville district 1 0.2% uxbridge district 1 0.2% waltham district 1 0.2% wareham district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 365 2 Natural Person 142 505 Total 507 507 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 72.0% 0.4% Natural Person 28.0% 99.6% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 350 15 365 Optional 80 62 142 Total 430 77 507 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 69.0% 3.0% 72.0% Optional 15.8% 12.2% 28.0% Total 84.8% 15.2% 100.0% Defendant Representation Important: Defendants will not have an attorney known to the plaintiff at time of filing unless this is an ongoing matter. 100% pro se is to be expected in all filing reports except to the extent time passes between filing and staff review. See outcomes report for final assessment. (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0 2 2 Optional 6 499 505 Total 6 501 507 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.4% 0.4% Optional 1.2% 98.4% 99.6% Total 1.2% 98.8% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 36 7.1% 1 332 65.5% 2 109 21.5% 3 21 4.1% 4 7 1.4% 5 2 0.4% Total 507 100.0% Note: Households may appear with zero adults due to clerical delay entering known defendants, identity protection obscuring known defendants (e.g., 42 USC Sections 13701 through 1404 Violence Against Women Act), or no adult defendants (e.g., abandonment of minors). Initiating Action Count Percent Non-payment 295 58.2% Cause 110 21.7% No Fault 97 19.1% Foreclosure 3 0.6% Unknown/Other 2 0.4% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Gardner 49 10 West Dennis 45 1 North Brookfield 42 2 Berlin 34 1 Dennis Port 31 1 Fall River 29 26 Lunenburg 29 3 East Sandwich 28 1 New Bedford 28 27 North Andover 28 8 Randolph 28 9 Worcester 28 52 Norwood 27 8 Braintree 22 8 Oak Bluffs 22 1 South Grafton 22 1 Marstons Mills 20 1 Fitchburg 19 8 Quincy 19 18 Lawrence 18 14 Athol 17 2 Foxborough 17 3 Framingham 17 12 Mansfield 17 4 Chatham 16 1 Marlborough 15 6 Millbury 15 2 Milford 14 4 North Grafton 12 1 Salisbury 12 1 Templeton 12 1 Adams 11 1 Attleborough 11 5 Lowell 11 12 Marshfield 11 3 Sharon 11 2 Stoughton 11 3 Townsend 11 1 Brewster 10 1 Woburn 10 4 Andover 9 3 Everett 9 4 Groton 9 1 Nantucket 9 1 North Billerica 9 1 South Easton 9 1 Westford 9 2 Winchendon 9 1 Belmont 8 2 Carver 8 1 Dorchester 8 8 Haverhill 8 5 Jamaica Plain 8 3 Taunton 8 5 Billerica 7 3 Clinton 7 1 E. Boston 7 3 Hyannis 7 1 Seekonk 7 1 Somerville 7 6 Uxbridge 7 1 Brockton 6 6 Fairhaven 6 1 Franklin 6 2 Hopkinton 6 1 Methuen 6 3 Westport 6 1 Chelsea 5 2 Hyde Park 5 2 Plymouth 5 3 Revere 5 3 Rockland 5 1 Roxbury 5 3 Southbridge 5 1 Webster 5 1 Winthrop 5 1 Leominster 4 2 Wareham 4 1 Allston 3 1 Bridgewater 3 1 Lynn 3 3 Medford 3 2 Needham Heights 3 1 Roslindale 3 1 Saugus 3 1 Weymouth 3 2 Brighton 2 1 Chelmsford 2 1 Dorchester Center 2 2 Holyoke 2 1 Mattapan 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 South Boston 2 1 Boston 1 10 Malden 1 1 Newton Highlands 1 1 Peabody 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 115 span 0 1 Rate per 100,000 residents based on 2010 census. Municipalities do not appear if no evictions filed. Where neighborhoods are commonly recognized as municipalities, data appears under the neighborhood rather than the legal entity (e.g., "Roxbury" is separate from "Boston".) Where municipalities have alternate spellings (e.g., Marlboro for Marlborough), totals appear under the long form. Efforts are made to correct clerical errors in the court database, but clerical errors may appear. Rate per 100,000 County Renter Households Count Bristol 86 71 Worcester 85 95 Norfolk 66 57 Plymouth 37 16 Barnstable 36 7 Essex 35 39 Nantucket 28 1 Middlesex 25 60 Dukes 24 1 Suffolk 21 42 Berkshire 6 1 Hampden 1 1 Franklin 0 0 Hampshire 0 0 Rate per 100,000 renter households based on 2019 ACS. Counties appear even if no evictions filed. -- Data Sources (report errors to hello@masslandlords.net): County Data Households Percent Renters Barnstable 96,509 20.0% Berkshire 53,792 30.0% Bristol 220,528 37.3% Dukes 18,146 22.6% Essex 297,898 36.9% Franklin 30,927 34.1% Hampden 179,970 39.5% Hampshire 60,002 30.7% Middlesex 612,366 38.1% Nantucket 11,399 30.8% Norfolk 269,717 31.6% Plymouth 191,041 22.6% Suffolk 309,945 63.7% Worcester 316,162 35.2% County Households: 2019 ACS TableID S1101 County Households and Renters, Dukes and Nantucket: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts County Households and Renters, Large Counties: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=S11&g=0400000US25.050000&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Subject%20Tables&tid=ACSST1Y2019.S1101&hidePreview=true Dukes County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/dukescountymassachusetts Nantucket County Renters: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/nantucketcountymassachusetts -- Methodology Publicly available records at MassCourts.org are read fully manually at two intervals: 1.) For a filings report, once within approximately one week of filing; 2.) For an outcomes report, once again approximately 12 to 18 months after filing. Cases are searched by 'case type' = 'summary process', party type = 'plaintiff' within date ranges, typically weekly. MassCourts.org displays matches, not cases. X plaintiffs on a single case result in X separate matches. Cases are manually de-duplicated. Where the number of matches exceeds the number displayed (e.g., 'Displaying 100 of 257 total matches.'), date ranges are reduced until all cases may be viewed. If the date range cannot be reduced (i.e., is one day) but matches still exceed the display limit of 100, then two additional passes are taken. First, municipalities are filtered in stages. Second, to capture cases with no municipality entered, the search switches from 'case type' to 'case number', guessing the missing numbers assuming serialized entry. This method results in 'matches' reconciled to case counts. This effort costs more than 1 FTE. Summary spreadsheets are produced by copying exactly what is read. The spreadsheets are processed using proprietary software. Repeated analyses of local spreadsheets does not burden the MassCourts servers. The software is developed using best practices for revision control and regression testing. Limitations: Data are snapshots. As such, we cannot track individual cases over time or produce real-time reports. MassLandlords does not have access to court databases beyond what is published in human readable form at MassCourts.org. As of this report, MassLandlords staff were not considering information available to attorneys (e.g., the contents of notices, discovery, evidence, etc.) but not available to the general public. All data presented here are readily verifiable at MassCourts.org without special permission. Information is not independently verified outside of the court record. For instance, clerical errors in address, omissions of a defendant, etc. are not readily verifiable. As this process matures, reporting algorithms may change. Transfers are counted as new cases. Clerical differences between original case and transfer (e.g., middle initial included then dropped; defendant dropped on transfer; street address spelling changed) as well as the potential for indefinite circular transferring (e.g., foreclosure cases moving between housing, land, and/or superior courts) make it very difficult to programmatically identify continuing matters. -- When Citing This Work, Please Credit: MassLandlords, Inc. Available online at https://masslandlords.net/policy/eviction-data/.