June 28, 2012

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 6:00 pm

The client, a 29 year old Harvard graduate student, was involved in a two car motor vehicle crash involving personal injury. The Client received an Application for Criminal Complaint in the mail for operating without a license following her discharge from the hospital, hired Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Steven J. Topazio to defend her. Prior to the scheduled hearing, Attorney Topazio confirmed that his client renewed her driver’s license prior to the scheduled hearing and obtained documentation from his client’s motor vehicle liability carrier regarding the accident. Attorney Topazio is aware that under the certain circumstances the Magistrate may exercise her authority to resolve local conflicts short of authorizing a criminal complaint. Although the primary role of the magistrate is to determine whether probable cause exists to require the accused to answer to a criminal charge, magistrates may decline to authorize complaints where the law allows the conflict to be fairly resolved in a different manner. In Gordon v. Fay, 382 Mass. 64, 69-70, 413 N.E.2d 1094, 1097-1098 (1980), the Supreme Judicial Court noted that the “implicit purpose of the [G.L. c. 218, §] 35A hearings is to enable the court clerk to screen a variety of minor criminal or potentially criminal matters out of the criminal justice system through a combination of counseling, discussion, or threat of prosecution.” Today, Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Topazio was successful in convincing the Magistrate to resolve the matter without issuing the criminal complaint.