Filings Week Ending 2023 June 10

Residential summary process: Filings Report This report examines cases filed recently before reading, for which outcomes were largely unknown. Search Period Start: 2023-06-04 Search Period End: 2023-06-10 Earliest Case: 2023-06-05 Latest Case: 2023-06-09 Total Cases: 761 Total Transfers: 14 -- High-level take-aways: Percentage of landlords for whom attorney is optional: 25.6% Of those, percentage pro se: 61.5% Most common cause: Non-payment Least stable municipality/neighborhood: Florence Least stable with 10+ filings: Southbridge Least stable with 100+ filings: (not given) Least stable county: Hampden Cases per day: 126 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 western 155 20.4% central 133 17.5% eastern 125 16.4% northeast 114 15.0% southeast 78 10.2% metro_south 72 9.5% malden district 11 1.4% lynn district 8 1.1% pittsfield district 8 1.1% quincy district 8 1.1% fall river district 5 0.7% lowell district 5 0.7% springfield district 5 0.7% brockton district 4 0.5% attleboro district 3 0.4% bmc dorchester 3 0.4% framingham district 3 0.4% milford district 3 0.4% northern berkshire district 2 0.3% waltham district 2 0.3% ayer district 1 0.1% bmc west roxbury 1 0.1% cambridge district 1 0.1% chelsea district 1 0.1% clinton district 1 0.1% concord district 1 0.1% dedham district 1 0.1% haverhill district 1 0.1% lawrence district 1 0.1% leominster district 1 0.1% newton district 1 0.1% plymouth district 1 0.1% uxbridge district 1 0.1% wareham district 1 0.1% Party Type (n) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 566 2 Natural Person 195 759 Total 761 761 (%) Plaintiffs Defendants Corporate Entity 74.4% 0.3% Natural Person 25.6% 99.7% Total 100.0% 100.0% Plaintiff Representation (n) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 552 14 566 Optional 75 120 195 Total 627 134 761 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 72.5% 1.8% 74.4% Optional 9.9% 15.8% 25.6% Total 82.4% 17.6% 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 1 1 2 Optional 3 756 759 Total 4 757 761 (%) Has Attorney Pro Se Total Required 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% Optional 0.4% 99.3% 99.7% Total 0.5% 99.5% 100.0% Number of Adults in Households Count Percent 0 37 4.9% 1 553 72.7% 2 146 19.2% 3 15 2.0% 4 8 1.1% 5 2 0.3% Total 761 100.0% 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 492 64.7% Cause 153 20.1% No Fault 100 13.1% Foreclosure 15 2.0% Unknown/Other 1 0.1% Rate per 100,000 Municipality Residents Count Florence 105 1 Blandford 81 1 Southbridge 71 12 Randolph 52 17 Auburn 43 7 Hadley 38 2 Raynham 37 5 Adams 35 3 Springfield 34 53 Saugus 33 9 Fitchburg 32 13 Dorchester 30 28 Holyoke 30 12 Brookfield 29 1 Worcester 28 52 Lawrence 27 21 Ayer 26 2 Malden 26 16 Athol 25 3 Marlborough 25 10 Williamstown 25 2 Leominster 24 10 Charlestown 23 4 Bedford 22 3 Braintree 22 8 Fall River 22 20 South Grafton 22 1 Stoughton 22 6 Sutton 22 2 Hyannis 21 3 East Freetown 20 1 Ware 20 2 Indian Orchard 19 2 Lenox 19 1 Mattapan 19 7 Nantucket 19 2 Winchendon 19 2 Abington 18 3 Chicopee 18 10 Quincy 18 17 Foxborough 17 3 Mansfield 17 4 Rockland 17 3 Rowley 17 1 Taunton 17 10 Webster 17 3 Attleborough 16 7 Palmer 16 2 Andover 15 5 East Taunton 15 1 Lowell 15 16 Pittsfield 15 7 Brockton 14 14 Clinton 14 2 Dalton 14 1 Great Barrington 14 1 Lynn 14 13 North Adams 14 2 North Andover 14 4 Whitinsville 14 1 West Boylston 13 1 Westford 13 3 Westwood 13 2 New Bedford 12 12 Douglas 11 1 Pembroke 11 2 Sudbury 11 2 Jamaica Plain 10 4 Milford 10 3 Norwood 10 3 Roxbury 10 6 Tewksbury 10 3 Westborough 10 2 Canton 9 2 Everett 9 4 Franklin 9 3 Gardner 9 2 Lakeville 9 1 Lexington 9 3 Salem 9 4 Chelsea 8 3 Dudley 8 1 Feeding Hills 8 1 Haverhill 8 5 Rehoboth 8 1 Tyngsborough 8 1 Wakefield 8 2 Weston 8 1 Bridgewater 7 2 Centerville 7 1 Dorchester Center 7 7 Melrose 7 2 Millbury 7 1 Northampton 7 2 Plymouth 7 4 Seekonk 7 1 Allston 6 2 Ashland 6 1 Cambridge 6 7 Duxbury 6 1 Fairhaven 6 1 Gloucester 6 2 Longmeadow 6 1 North Reading 6 1 Northbridge 6 1 Swansea 6 1 Waltham 6 4 West Roxbury 6 2 Whitman 6 1 Beverly 5 2 Framingham 5 4 Grafton 5 1 Marblehead 5 1 Peabody 5 3 Acton 4 1 Billerica 4 2 East Boston 4 2 East Wareham 4 1 Methuen 4 2 Onset 4 1 Sandwich 4 1 Walpole 4 1 Westfield 4 2 Dracut 3 1 Falmouth 3 1 Marshfield 3 1 Needham 3 1 North Attleborough 3 1 Revere 3 2 Watertown 3 1 Arlington 2 1 Chelmsford 2 1 Hyde Park 2 1 South Dartmouth 2 1 Woburn 2 1 Newton 1 1 Weymouth 1 1 (not given) 0 122 Boston 0 3 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 Hampden 118 84 Worcester 109 122 Berkshire 105 17 Bristol 80 66 Plymouth 78 34 Norfolk 75 64 Essex 65 72 Nantucket 56 2 Middlesex 40 94 Hampshire 38 7 Suffolk 35 71 Barnstable 31 6 Dukes 0 0 Franklin 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. Methodology changes: 2022-03: Where docket history shows judgment and/or execution, but case has not been disposed, infer judgment and/or execution. 2022-05: Correct counting error in 'By prevailing party' section where agreement for judgment renders prevailing party unknown. Rows now sum to total. 2023-01: We now report dispositions on the basis of the last disposition found in a docket. Previously we were using a prioritized keyword match, which produced inaccurate results for complex cases. -- When Citing This Work, Please Credit: MassLandlords, Inc. Available online at https://masslandlords.net/policy/eviction-data/.