Massachusetts Claim of Appeal of a Small Claims Judgment

If the court does not receive any documents from you or the defendant, nine months after the statement of claim was filed, the court will dismiss your claim and your case will be closed. If you still want to recover money from the defendant you will need to start a new case and pay the court fees again.

You might be able to appeal - you'll need to do this within 21 days of the court's decision.You need to ask the court's permission to appeal. The court will only consider your appeal if the judge made a legal mistake. They'll refuse if they don't think you have a good chance of succeeding.

1. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 218, section 23 (which is reproduced below) permits a defendant to appeal from a magistrate's decision in a small claim for trial before either a Trial Court judge or a jury.Generally the plaintiff does not have any right of appeal in a small claim.

As a general rule, every case can be appealed. However, within that rule there are some definitions and explanations that guide the appeal process and weed out those who should never have appealed in the first place.If your trial was a jury trial, the person that the appeals court evaluates is the judge, not the jury.

You can appeal against a small claims decision only if there was some sort of irregularity in the proceedings, or you have reason to believe the court made an error in law, in which case your notice of appeal must be filed within 21 days.

The judge made an error of law. The facts of the case and/or the evidence introduced in the trial court do not support the judge's decision. The judge abused his/her discretion

The first step in the appeal is filing a notice of appeal in the clerk's, register's, or recorder's office of the court in which your case was heard. View the Civil Appeals guide for an overview of when and where you must file your notice of appeal, which is the first step in the appeals process.