Welcome to the official Web site of the office of the Reporter of Decisions of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) and Appeals Court.

Since 1804 the Reporter's office has published the opinions of the SJC, the oldest court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere. The Reporter's office has also published the opinions of the Appeals Court since its establishment in 1972.

This Web site contains four publications of the SJC and Appeals Court:

Slip opinions. Slip opinions are available to the public shortly after 10 A.M. on days opinions are released. The Today's SJC Opinions feature at left announces at 8 A.M. the case captions and docket numbers of those opinions the SJC intends to release at 10 A.M. Most opinions are released within 130 days of oral argument.

You may access the slip opinions either by checking this Web site for the opinion sought or by registering for automatic electronic mail delivery of cases.

Slip opinions posted to the Web site are removed within two weeks then appear in advance sheet format in the Advance Sheet and Opinion Archive sections of the site.

Opinion Archive. The opinions of the SJC and Appeals Court released since 2001 are available, without charge, in the archive. These opinions are fully searchable.

Unpublished Decisions. The memoranda and orders that support the decisions pursuant to rule 1:28 of the Appeals Court released since February 26, 2008, are available, without charge, in this publication.

Advance Sheets. Advance sheets are available by subscription only. They include (1) the opinions of the two appellate courts with headnotes; (2) the SJC orders for further appellate review; (3) Appeals Court decisions pursuant to its rule 1:28 as they appear in the printed advance sheets; and (4) amendments to the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rules of Appellate Procedure, and the Rules of the Supreme Judicial Court. The advance sheets also include all subsequent amendments and corrections made to the opinions between the time of their release and the publication of the bound volumes. A subscription to the electronic advance sheets may be obtained on the Web site, or by calling 1-800-344-5009.

We hope our Web site is useful and informative. We welcome your comments and suggestions for ways to improve it.