Filings Week Ending 2021 December 11

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2021-12-05 Search Period End: 2021-12-11 Earliest Case: 2021-12-06 Latest Case: 2021-12-10 Total Cases: 463 Total Transfers: 14 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 37.6% Of those, percentage pro se: 55.7% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: North Adams Least stable with 10+ filings: North Adams Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Berkshire Cases per day: 77 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 87 18.8% southeast 72 15.6% northeast 70 15.1% eastern 61 13.2% western 60 13.0% metro_south 44 9.5% northern berkshire district 21 4.5% plymouth district 7 1.5% fall river district 4 0.9% lynn district 4 0.9% new bedford district 4 0.9% attleboro district 3 0.6% somerville district 3 0.6% barnstable district 2 0.4% chelsea district 2 0.4% lowell district 2 0.4% malden district 2 0.4% newburyport district 2 0.4% quincy district 2 0.4% springfield district 2 0.4% ayer district 1 0.2% chicopee district 1 0.2% clinton district 1 0.2% framingham district 1 0.2% haverhill district 1 0.2% nantucket district 1 0.2% palmer district 1 0.2% peabody district 1 0.2% pittsfield district 1 0.2% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 289 0 Natural Person 174 463 Total 463 463 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 62.4% 0.0% Natural Person 37.6% 100.0% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 265 24 289 Optional 77 97 174 Total 342 121 463 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 57.2% 5.2% 62.4% Optional 16.6% 21.0% 37.6% Total 73.9% 26.1% 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 0 0 Optional 4 459 463 Total 4 459 463 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Optional 0.9% 99.1% 100.0% Total 0.9% 99.1% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 53 11.4% 1 300 64.8% 2 93 20.1% 3 7 1.5% 4 8 1.7% 5 2 0.4% Total 463 100.0% 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 263 56.8% Cause 108 23.3% No Fault 84 18.1% Foreclosure 8 1.7% Unknown/Other 0 0.0% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count North Adams 153 21 Royalston 79 1 Provincetown 67 2 Winchendon 48 5 West Dennis 45 1 Rockland 34 6 Dennis Port 31 1 Princeton 29 1 Southbridge 29 5 Fall River 28 25 Hyannis 28 4 South Dennis 27 1 Whitman 27 4 Lancaster 24 2 Randolph 24 8 East Freetown 20 1 Marlborough 18 7 West Yarmouth 18 1 East Falmouth 17 1 Plymouth 17 10 Revere 17 9 Rowley 17 1 Mattapoisett 16 1 Methuen 16 8 Merrimac 15 1 Chelsea 14 5 Clinton 14 2 Framingham 14 10 Gardner 14 3 Mashpee 14 2 New Bedford 14 14 Taunton 14 8 Worcester 14 26 Quincy 13 12 Shirley 13 1 East Templeton 12 1 Lowell 12 13 Millis 12 1 Attleborough 11 5 Haverhill 11 7 Monson 11 1 Webster 11 2 Westborough 10 2 Brockton 9 9 Fitchburg 9 4 Hull 9 1 Lakeville 9 1 Leominster 9 4 Nantucket 9 1 Dudley 8 1 North Easton 7 1 Oxford 7 1 Uxbridge 7 1 Wayland 7 1 Allston 6 2 Amesbury 6 1 Dracut 6 2 Franklin 6 2 Needham Heights 6 2 Roslindale 6 2 West Roxbury 6 2 Westport 6 1 Braintree 5 2 Charlestown 5 1 Foxborough 5 1 Holden 5 1 Hyde Park 5 2 Lawrence 5 4 Lynn 5 5 Mattapan 5 2 Medford 5 3 Somerset 5 1 Sudbury 5 1 Belmont 4 1 Billerica 4 2 Canton 4 1 Dedham 4 1 Easton 4 1 Andover 3 1 Bridgewater 3 1 Dorchester Center 3 3 Malden 3 2 Marshfield 3 1 Natick 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Roxbury 3 2 West Springfield 3 1 Dorchester 2 2 East Boston 2 1 Jamaica Plain 2 1 Pittsfield 2 1 Salem 2 1 Shrewsbury 2 1 Brookline 1 1 Chicopee 1 1 South Weymouth 1 1 Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 121 Boston 0 6 Cambridge 0 1 Springfield 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 Berkshire 136 22 Plymouth 78 34 Bristol 70 58 Barnstable 67 13 Worcester 56 63 Norfolk 38 33 Nantucket 28 1 Essex 26 29 Suffolk 20 40 Middlesex 19 45 Hampden 5 4 Dukes 0 0 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/.