Massachusetts Criminal Records

Massachusetts invented a word for its criminal record, CORI, and built a system around who may see it. The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services holds the state's Criminal Offender Record Information and releases it in levels, with the public level limited to the serious convictions. The courts post basic case information on a public portal. The police keep a daily log that the law requires to be public. And the sealing statute takes cases out of all of it on a schedule. This page gives the Massachusetts rule and the Massachusetts search for each record, with government sources only.

The Department's CORI page explains how a check works: the name and identifying information submitted are "searched against Massachusetts court records to determine if there is a possible record for that person," and "this type of criminal record check contains only Massachusetts information and is not fingerprint supported," with results in "up to ten (10) business days." Who sees what is set by statute. Employers and landlords registered with the Department get the standard level, which includes convictions and pending cases within the periods the law sets. The public gets the open access level, a request "under the Open Access" provisions for a person who has been convicted of a felony punishable by five years or more, or, as the form puts it, who "has been convicted of any crime and sentenced to any term of imprisonment" and is still under the sentence or the period the statute sets. A person's own record is free: the Department's CORI booklet says "you can request a free report once every 90 days," and "a fee of $25 will be charged for any additional requests made before the end of any 90-day period." CORI is exempt from the public records law, so no one gets it by public records request, and a background check company's "Massachusetts record" is either a registered CORI request or a copy of the court portal below.

The Massachusetts Trial Court's case access portal gives "free access to basic case information and scheduled court dates for members of the public and attorneys," and the court system's guide explains how to search it by name, case type and court. Criminal cases are district court and Boston Municipal Court files for misdemeanors and the start of felonies, and superior court files for the felonies that are indicted, and the portal covers both, with the docket entries; the documents are at the clerk. As everywhere the portal is a name search, and the criminal records page explains what a copy of it misses.

Massachusetts seals under chapter 276, sections 100A and following, of the General Laws: a misdemeanor conviction may be sealed by petition to the Commissioner of Probation three years after the end of the sentence, a felony after seven years, with sex offenses and the other exclusions the statute lists, and a case that ended without a conviction may be sealed by petition to the court at any time. Expungement, which destroys the record, is available under sections 100E and following for offenses committed before 21 and for cases of mistaken identity, fraud or a law later repealed. A sealed Massachusetts case is removed from the CORI shown to employers and the public and from the court's public docket, and a copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

Massachusetts answers the arrest question with a statute about police logs. General Laws chapter 41, section 98F says that "each police department ... shall make, keep and maintain a daily log, written in a form that can be easily understood, recording, in chronological order, all responses to valid complaints received, crimes reported, the names, addresses of persons arrested and the charges against such persons arrested," and that the log is a public record, with the exceptions for victims of sexual and domestic violence the section names. The state's public records exemptions then close CORI itself, "Criminal Offender Record Information (G.L. c. 4, § 7(26)(a); G.L. c. 6, §§167A, 172)," so the day's arrests are public in the log while the compiled history is not. Who is in state custody is found through the Department of Correction's inmate locator, which uses the VINELink service and notes that "only the Massachusetts Department of Correction participates," so the county houses of correction run by the sheriffs are searched through each sheriff's site. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A Massachusetts judgment is enforceable for twenty years, under chapter 260, section 20, of the General Laws, and enforced by execution under chapter 235, which allows "successive executions on unsatisfied judgments." A lien on real property comes from an attachment recorded before judgment or a levy of the execution recorded after it, and the Registry of Deeds' guide to executions explains the recording steps. The court records page covers where the judgments are searched.

Massachusetts is a single federal judicial district, the District of Massachusetts, under 28 U.S.C. 101, and court is held at Boston, New Bedford, Springfield and Worcester. A federal criminal case from any Massachusetts county is on that court's docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Massachusetts conviction: a registered CORI request answers it for employers and landlords, the open access request answers it for the public for the serious convictions, and the court portal answers it for anyone, by name, case by case.

Whether a person was arrested: the police department's daily log answers it, by statute.

Whether a person is in custody now: the Department of Correction's locator answers it for state prison, and each sheriff's site for the county houses of correction.

Whether an old case can still be found: a sealed case is out of CORI and the court docket, a judgment is live for twenty years, and a copy that predates a sealing is reached through the federal rule.